For Sale

For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game's two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible. The original Ravensburger/FX Schmid edition (1997/98) has slightly different rules than later English editions, and only 20 buildings instead of 30. The Überplay 2005 Edition has new art, rules and card distribution changes, and it accommodates 3-6 players. The Gryphon 2009 Edition uses the Überplay art for the faces of the property cards, while replacing most other art. The rules are the same as the Überplay edition, with the exception of the rounding rule (which was stated in different ways in different printings of the Überplay edition). Rounding rule The rounding rule preferred by the designer Stefan Dorra is that players get back half of their bid rounded DOWN (not UP), as confirmed in correspondence with him here and here. A history of how the rounding rule has changed in different editions is documented here.

{
  "game_id": 172,
  "name": "For Sale",
  "core_verb": "bid, then sell card",
  "decision_shape": "mixed:combinatorial+social",
  "reward_schedule": "mixed:immediate+delayed",
  "aesthetics": [
    "Challenge",
    "Fellowship"
  ],
  "core_loop_pitch": "Phase 1: bid coins for buildings. Phase 2: simultaneously play buildings against face-up checks; high card wins big.",
  "mobile_translation_difficulty": "Easy",
  "translation_difficulty_reason": "Tiny rules footprint and short rounds are ideal for mobile; the game is essentially two clean micro-auctions.",
  "direct_digital_port": null,
  "direct_digital_port_kind": null,
  "closest_loop_translation": "none yet",
  "primitive_tags": [
    "two_phase_auction",
    "drop_out_bidding",
    "blind_card_match",
    "value_inflation_speculation",
    "micro_filler"
  ],
  "confidence": 0.7
}

{
  "game_id": 172,
  "name": "For Sale",
  "mechanics": {
    "core_verb_long": "Phase 1: you ante coin chips into the middle to bid on a row of property cards (values 1-30), one ascending-auction round at a time, choosing each turn whether to raise or pass. When you pass you take the lowest remaining property and reclaim half your committed coins (rounded down per Dorra's preferred rule). Phase 2: you reveal one property face-down simultaneously with everyone else to claim the highest available cheque card. The whole game is two stacks of cards and a pile of coins — pure information, almost no fiddly bookkeeping.",
    "core_loop_long": "Phase 1 (Buying): each round, N property cards (N = player count) are revealed; players ante up to bid in turn-order-until-pass; passers take the lowest remaining property and refund half their bid; the last bidder takes the highest property paying full price. Repeat until the property deck is exhausted and every player owns a hand of properties. Phase 2 (Selling): each round, N cheque cards (values $0-$15) are revealed; players simultaneously play one property face-down; reveal — highest property takes highest cheque, second-highest takes second-highest, etc. Ties broken by tiebreaker rules. Game ends when properties are all sold; player with most money (remaining coins + cheque values) wins.",
    "decision_space": "Phase 1 decisions: when to pass (taking the lowest property and recouping half your bid) versus when to push (committing more coins to win a high-value property). The math is sharp — if you bid 6 and pass, you net a low property at a cost of 3 coins; if you push to 10 and win, you got the top property at 10 coins. You're constantly pricing properties relative to opponents' coin stacks and the spread of remaining cards. Phase 2 decisions: which property to play against which cheque-spread — dump your low properties into low-cheque rounds, save your top ones for fat cheque windows. Option space per decision is small (3-6 plays) but tradeoffs are sharp.",
    "skill_expression": "Dominant skill is auction-theoretic pricing: reading the value gap between properties on offer, the coins remaining among opponents, and the bluff-discount on passing early. Second is opponent reading — late-game Phase 1, you can sometimes infer who has the strong property hand and counter-time them in Phase 2. Third is risk-curve modeling: knowing when a 28-card is worth pushing for vs accepting a 12-card cheaply. Almost no memory or math complexity (additions to ~50). Weak players overpay early when coins are 'plentiful'; strong players track relative coin stacks and play passive-aggressive in Phase 1 to bank for surprise raises.",
    "tactile_dependency": "low",
    "tactile_dependency_reason": "It's coins, property cards, and cheque cards — every component encodes a number. The simultaneous reveal in Phase 2 is the only tactile flourish, and it ports cleanly to a phone with a synchronized-flip animation. This is a poster-child for digital translation — Reiner Knizia's Schotten Totten and Stefan Dorra's For Sale are textbook 'pure information' designs."
  },
  "theme": {
    "promise": "Pretend to be a 1990s real-estate flipper bidding on cardboard houses ranging from a cardboard box (1) to a space station (30), then selling them when the market is hot. Quick, breezy, the theme is window dressing.",
    "setting": "modern, economic, real estate",
    "narrative": "none — pasted-on theme; mechanically a pure two-phase auction abstract",
    "audience": "gateway, family",
    "art_direction": "Überplay/Gryphon edition: cartoony Tom Murphy whimsical illustrations of properties (outhouse, igloo, castle, UFO) with bright primary palette and gag-comic energy. The art is the joke — a 1 is a literal cardboard box, a 30 is a space station — and reinforces the casual-light tone."
  },
  "translation": {
    "digital_meta_layer_ideas": [
      "Async PvP auction tournament: 4-player rooms over 24h, players bid as turns become available, weekly ladder by total winnings",
      "Bid-the-deck daily puzzle: fixed property/cheque distribution, fixed AI opponent personalities (greedy, cautious, mirror), score by margin of victory",
      "Speculator season pass: 30-day rolling tournament where each day's results feed cumulative coins, top finishers get cosmetic 'house' avatars at season end",
      "Co-op variant against an AI 'Market': team bids against the house, splits the cheques, attempts to clear a hidden coin target"
    ],
    "closest_mobile_genre": "async PvP card battler",
    "live_service_potential": "medium"
  },
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "extraction_version": "v3"
}