Sale of the Century

Sale of the Century is a Transmanian television game show.

Main Game
All contestants were spotted with Ð100 to start. The host read a trivia question to the three contestants (one of which was usually the returning champion of the previous show). The first to press a buzzer had the opportunity to answer the question (even if the host was still in the middle of reading the question). Players' scores increased by Ð25 for each correct answer and decreased by Ð25 for each incorrect answer. If a player answered incorrectly, the correct answer was revealled and the game went on to the next question - that is, only one person could try to answer each question.

Gift Shop
Once per round, the highest-scoring player had the opportunity to go to a "gift shop" and was offered the chance to sacrifice some part of their score to "purchase" a prize. The prizes, and the cost, increased in each round, usually around Ð15–35 in round 1, then Ð35–50 in round 2, and Ð50–80 in round 3. Contestants were allowed to bargain with the host, who, depending on the game situation, could reduce the cost and offer inducements including actual cash in order to entice the contestant to purchase. If two or more players had the same score at this point, a Dutch auction was conducted for the prize.

Some gift shops also included a bonus prize called a "Sale Surprise", revealled only after the conclusion of the gift shop (regardless of whether the contestant bought the prize or not).

Cash Box/Cash Card
In the mid-late 1980s, the third Gift Shop prize was replaced by a mini-game (Cash Box in 1986, Cash Card in 1989), giving players an opportunity to win some cash, an extra prize, or earn extra score money:

Cash Box
The player in the lead (auction if there was a tie) would be given the opportunity to play for a cash jackpot, which started at Ð10,000 and increased by Ð5,000 every day until it was won. To play, the leading contestant would have to give up their lead over the second-place competitor. If the contestant opted to play, they selected one of three boxes. One box contained the jackpot while each of the other boxes contained Ð500 and Ð1,000.

Who am I?/Fame Game
A longer-format question generally known as the "Who am I?" question was asked once in each of the three rounds. Here, a succession of increasingly larger clues was given to the identity of a famous person, place, or event. In this round, players could buzz in and answer at any time, without penalty for an incorrect answer. However, each player only had one chance to answer. If one of the players buzzed in and answered correctly, they had an opportunity to play the "famous faces" sub-game, in which they could choose randomly from a game board with nine squares featuring the faces of celebrities, mostly performers on the network's shows. Once chosen, the face selected would be spun around to reveal either a relatively small prize (typically appliances or furniture valued at around a weekly wage) or a Ð125 money card, which awarded Ð125 to the player's score.

Later series added additional Ð50, Ð75, & Ð100 money cards to the game board. By 1988, the Ð50 would be available at the outset, the Ð75 added at the second "Who am I" and the Ð125 at the third. In 1986, a "Wild Card" was added to the final Fame Game, in which a contestant could choose either Ð5,000 in cash or a chance to pick again. The Ð100 was added in 1989 but removed in 1993.