joke time

[Angrboda]

Just once on the TV game show "The Price Is Right", when everyone is bidding on contestant's row I want to see them bid on a cash prize. 

"What do you bid on $2,000 dollars?"

"Um um I'll bid $1"

The Dollar Auction first appeared in 1971. Today, given inflation, the game is often played like this: A large group of people participate in the auction, say between 30 and 50. A $20 bill is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Bidding begins at $1. All subsequent bids must be in single dollar increments. The “twist” to this auction is that while the highest bidder wins the twenty dollar bill, the second highest bidder must pay to the auctioneer what he or she bid as well. In this auction, there will usually be not only be one loser, one who pays money for nothing, and but two. Read on!

By the time the auction reaches $19, most bidders drop out. The person who had bid $18 will invariably bid $20 to break even. Presumably, that would bring the auction to a close, right? Wrong! One professor who utilized the Dollar Auction as a teaching tool for more than 20 years said that the bidding will usually continue well past the $20 mark.

Consider this case in point, a day the professor will never forget. He used the dollar auction while teaching a course for executives in organizational behavior. At the end, the “winner” paid $54 for the twenty dollar bill. The loser paid $53. The rest of the class watched the futile bidding war with bewilderment and glee. (Proceeds would be donated to charity).

The $20 auction and the dynamics of conflict