Worst playings of pricing games

[wink87]

Thought I'd post my nomination of the worst playing of a pricing game.

November 1, 1993: Contestant Virgil comes to a total of $16.99 in Check Out. The actual total was $7.64 for a difference of $9.35.

Feel free to post your nominations.

[tpir04]

The worst that I can remember was actually from this season. Contestant Elaine played 10 Chances for an omelet maker, espresso machine and Mitsubishi Mirage. She used one guess on the $40 omelet maker........and the other nine chances on the espresso machine. Guesses included $947 and $709, and of course the now-infamous FOURSEVENNINE...which the audience shouted almost completely in unison.

[SeaBreeze341]

For me there's probably a 13-way tie, but I guess I'd have to go for the first one that came to mind.

March 22, 1991: Contestant Cathy struggles somewhat but manages to control her own destiny by the time she gets to the last number.  Probably have to try to lose whereas there isn't a number possible for the final digit to deny Cathy by saying it's a five.

I thought of someone blowing it in Season 11, but one could argue that the contestant might have tried to go for perfection

[RatRace10]

I remember a playing of Cliff Hangers in 2010 or so where a female contestant guessed single-digit prices for all three prizes.

[Alfonzo]

Two immediately came to mind:

1) A lady named Lavron played Lucky Seven and got the first three numbers exactly right...AND STILL LOST!!!

2) Another lady named Janice played One Away, got the first digit wrong, got a second chance and STILL didn't change the first digit! The whole audience was screaming at her!

[Casey]

For me there's probably a 13-way tie, but I guess I'd have to go for the first one that came to mind.

March 22, 1991: Contestant Cathy struggles somewhat but manages to control her own destiny by the time she gets to the last number.  Probably have to try to lose whereas there isn't a number possible for the final digit to deny Cathy by saying it's a five.

Last number of what? and playing what?

[LiteBulb88]

It's hard to play Cliff Hangers worse than this:

[wink87]

Last number of what? and playing what?

Last number of the truck she was playing for in Lucky $even. She had 5 dollars left on the last number.

[SuperMatch93]

Two that come to mind are Lucky Seven being lost on the first guess (guessed a 9, second digit was 1) and a no-horn loss in One Away when it was played for a Lincoln.

[Alfonzo]

It's hard to play Cliff Hangers worse than this:

I wish I could find the clip of the dude that thought a $10 toy guitar was $2,000. He ended up guessing $750 and Bob had a fit!

[SeaBreeze341]

Last number of the truck she was playing for in Lucky $even. She had 5 dollars left on the last number.

Out of my entire post, I don't know how I omitted the name of the pricing game.  Sorry about that, Casey (and thank you, wink!)

[Casey]

Out of my entire post, I don't know how I omitted the name of the pricing game.  Sorry about that, Casey (and thank you, wink!)

Thanks! . I knew I had to be missing something, but didn’t know what

[ThatDonGuy]

My vote: a playing of Secret X - it was bad enough that the free X didn't go into a corner, but after the contestant missed the first prize but got the second, he placed his second X in a corner. To make things worse, the secret X was in the center, so he would have won.

Here's an "honorable mention" for the worst playing...by pretty much everyone (including Bob) except the contestant: a playing of Temptation for what looked like a bare-bones compact car (think Subaru Justy) in the days when cars tended to start around $6000. This was in the 4-digit days, and the choices for the first digit were 5 and 8; the contestant chose 8. Everybody in the audience moaned, and when it came time to reveal the price, Bob said, "Nobody has ever gotten the first digit wrong...until now," then he pressed the button - and (DING) an 8 appeared. Apparently, the contestant was the only one who listened to the incredibly long list of options the car had.

[actual_retail_tice]

Two that come to mind are Lucky Seven being lost on the first guess (guessed a 9, second digit was 1) and a no-horn loss in One Away when it was played for a Lincoln.

I've told this story many times and I'm still hoping to see this come up on YouTube, but I'll re-tell it.

It's 1982 and Lucky 7 is being played for a Jeep Renegade, a fairly nice vehicle and more expensive than most cars seen on the show. But, they haven't started playing Lucky 7 (or many other games, for that matter) for 5-digit cars yet. As Bob finished explaining the game, the contestant seems not to completely understand, and the dialogue between him and Bob goes something like this:

Contestant- "Oh, I guess it costs about...$11,000."
Bob- "OK...well, then what do you think the first number in the price is?"
Contestant- "A one!"
Bob- (looks at studio audience and then into the cameras) "I hate this. I hate to do this to him, but now I have to show him. He says one. What's the first number?"

The first number is revealed to be a nine. The contestant has lost on the first guess, for the first time ever...something I'm sure Bob made a point of mentioning just then.

Setting aside the fact that the contestant should have noticed that there were only spaces for 4 numbers on the board, would Bob really have been giving away too much information to say there are only 4 numbers in the price? A few years later, Bob would very frequently say "This car is worth over $10,000" or "There are 5 digits in the price of this car."

[TPIRfan#9821]

This playing of It's In The Bag:

Also, this playing of Bonkers (starts at 8:23):