Free on CPSCount, on one shared phone or on everyone’s own. No download, no sign-up, and the dollars are imaginary: no real money is ever involved.
What you need
- Two or more players. Two is the classic, with friends or an audience as the jury.
- A theme with at least five options per player: 10 for two players. Take one from the 60 categories or deal one with the generator.
- A way to keep track of money: paper and pen, a notes app, or our game, which keeps the budgets and the clock for you.
Standard rules
Each player starts with an imaginary $20 and five empty slots. Then:
Set up the table
Pick a theme and line up five options per player, without showing them yet.
Reveal one option
Show the next option to everyone. Only this one is for sale.
Bid in whole dollars
Anyone with money and a free slot can open at $1 or more, and every new bid must beat the last one. In our game the first bid has 60 seconds and each new bid resets the clock to 7 seconds.
Sell it
When nobody raises, the highest bidder pays and puts the option in a slot. Only the buyer pays; everyone else keeps their money.
Nobody bids?
The option still goes to someone: it is handed to a player with a free slot for $0, taking turns.
Repeat until every slot is full
You can never bid more than you have left, and a player with five options stops bidding. Then everyone shows their five.
When one player runs out of money
In a two-player game, bidding stops the moment one player has spent all $20. The player who still has money hands out every remaining option, one by one and for free: into their own empty slots or onto the other player’s.
This is the rule that makes the game tense. Spend everything early on two great options and your rival decides what fills your last three slots, and the theme’s worst picks tend to end up with you. Keep a dollar or two back and you keep a say.
With three or more players, bidding continues as long as two players with money still have free slots. When only one is left, that player hands out the rest.
Popular variants
Variants are house rules: agree on one before the first option is shown.
- Muted (silent) draft
- Nobody speaks. The host shows an option with a set price and players answer at the same moment with a gesture: thumbs up to buy, thumbs down to pass. If one player wants it, they pay that price; if both do, the price goes up by $1 and it is shown again; if nobody does, it goes to the next player with a free slot for $0.
- Open auction
- The loud version: everyone shouts bids and a host counts down “going once, going twice, sold”. Best with a quick host and three or more players.
- Secret bids
- Each player writes a bid in secret and everyone reveals at once. The highest bid pays; on a tie, bid again or flip a coin with the coin flip. It rewards reading your opponents instead of reacting to them.
- Snake draft (no money)
- Skip the budget. Players pick in the order 1-2-2-1 (1-2-3-3-2-1 with three players) until every slot is full. The calmest version, good for younger players.
- Budget draft
- Change the money: $10 makes every dollar hurt, $50 leaves room for bidding wars, and uneven budgets work as a handicap. Our game’s custom rules allow $5 to $100 and 1 to 10 picks per player.
How to pick a winner at home
House rules
Our game has no winner: the game ends when every slot is full and everyone compares their five. If your group wants a winner, agree on one of these before you start.
- Group vote. Everyone who did not play votes for the better set. Players cannot vote for themselves.
- Judge. One person decides, ideally someone who watched the whole auction.
- Comment vote. Post both sets and let your followers decide, the way the TikTok videos do.
- Scenario battle. Put the sets into the theme’s story: who survives the outbreak, whose house sells first, whose hero wins the fight.
Tied? Settle it with the coin flip.
Tips to bid better
Don’t go broke first
The last player with money controls every remaining option. Keeping $2 or $3 for the end is often worth more than one extra good pick.
Watch their wallet
Track what your opponent has left. Once you can outbid them on everything, you can afford to wait and buy cheaply.
Price the trap picks
Every theme has a few terrible options. Let your rival win them for $1, or make them pay to dodge them.
Build a set, not a pile
Decide early what your five are about. A combination that fits together beats five random favourites when the votes come in.
Related reading
FAQ
How much money does each player get?
An imaginary $20 each. Some groups play with $10 or $50 for a different feel; our game’s custom rules allow any budget from $5 to $100.
Can you bid more money than you have left?
No. A bid can never be higher than your remaining money, and once your five slots are full you stop bidding.
What happens if nobody bids on an option?
It still goes into a slot, for $0. In our game a coin picks one of the players with a free slot.
Do you have to spend all $20?
No. Leftover money scores nothing, but it keeps you in control: the last player with money decides where the remaining options go.
Is there a winner?
Not in our game. At home, use one of the house rules above: a group vote, a judge, a comment vote or a scenario battle.
