Sale of the Century (NZ)

This is article about the New Zealand version of Sale of the Century.

Main Game
All contestants are spotted with $20 to start. The host reads a trivia question to the three contestants (one of which was usually the winner of the previous show). The first to press a buzzer gets an opportunity to answer the question (even if the host is still in the middle of reading the question). Players' scores increase by $5 for each correct answer and decrease by $5 for each incorrect answer. If a player answers incorrectly, the correct answer is revealed and the game goes on to the next question - that is, only one person can try to answer each question.

Gift Shop
Once per round, the highest-scoring player gets to go to a "gift shop" and was offered the chance to sacrifice some part of his/her score to "purchase" a prize. The prizes, and the cost, increased in each round. Contestants were allowed to haggle 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", revealed only after the conclusion of the gift shop (whether the contestant bought the prize or not).

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 were 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, he/she had an opportunity to play the "famous faces" sub-game, where he/she got to 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 money card (added during each round):
 * $10 in the first round
 * $15 in the second round
 * $25 in the third round
 * Also in the third round, an additional "Wild Card" was added, where the player who picked it could choose to either pick from the board again, or take a cash prize of $500

Fast Money/Mad Minute
Originally, after the third Fame Game, three more general knowledge questions were asked, and the contestant with the highest score is the winner. (On the first episode, there was only one question following the last Fame Game question.) This gave way to "fast money", where the host would ask the questions in a particularly rapid-fire manner, attempting to fit in as many questions as possible in a 60 second time limit. Starting in 1989, there was a shorter 30-second fast money section in round two with the original reduced to 30-seconds, later restored to a minute, and renamed "Mad Minute". Most of the more successful players proved themselves particularly adept at this section.

The winner of the game was the person with the most money at the end. If there was a final tie, the tied players answered a tiebreaker "Who am I" question, where a correct answer from either contestant won the game, while an incorrect answer defeated the contestant in favor of his or her opponent.

Shopping
For much of the show's original run and 1994-95 run, a series of six prizes was offered, culminating in a car. A contestant could take his or her cumulative winnings, buy a prize, and retire, or elect to return the next day and try to win enough to buy the next most expensive prize. They also had the option of purchasing one of the lower-level prizes on offer.

The cumulative scores required for each prize level was as follows:
 * Prize 1 - $75
 * Prize 2 - $150
 * Prize 3 - $245
 * Prize 4 - $345
 * Prize 5 - $445
 * Car - $550
 * The lot - $650

Prize Board
Near the end of the show's original run in 1993, a prize could be chosen from a modified Fame Game board. The Fame Game squares were replaced with numbers (just like in America from 1984 to 1989); squares that were previously picked were replaced with the "Sale of the Century" logo.

Big Winners

 * Hamish McDouall (1989) - $96,513
 * Dean Sole (17 November 1994) - $85,313
 * Dean also holds the record for the highest ever score on any version of $ale of the Century - $201 (one dollar more than the Australian record) - achieved on 14 November 1994. His achievement is all the more remarkable as it took him just five nights to achieve a cumulative score of $790.

YouTube Links
Hamish vs. Jennifer vs. Bob - last 30 seconds of Fast Money and Hamish winning the lot

Closing credits to a general episode from 1989

Fast Money round from an International Challenge and ending

Dean Sole

 * 11 November 1994
 * 14 November 1994 (including his $201 score)
 * 15 November 1994
 * 16 November 1994
 * 17 November 1994

Family Challenge

 * Heat: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
 * Quarter-Final: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3