Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 4 (The Wheel & The Showcase)

August 27, 2013

shock of seeing it almost on 95Picking up from yesterday –

I have no advice when it comes to spinning the wheel. I went over. And I don’t know that that’s something you could strategize on without being able to practice on it.

If we all lived at the Bob Barker studio, we probably could spin it enough to understand the right amount of uumph needed, and get to the point where we could spin a dollar, or close to it, often.

But, we don’t live there. Or at least I don’t. If you do, kudos, and go get practicing!

I never made it to the showcase. So, I don’t know that I’m qualified to give advice for that. However, I’d assume it’s the same exact advice that I’d give for contestants’ row and your onstage game.

Really, really listen. Ask for anything you need repeated. (You get at most one chance on Price is Right every 10 years. So don’t waste it, ’cause you’re too embarrassed to ask. They’ll edit it out if you have something repeated and it bores the audience.)

Listen to the person beside you and how they bid.

If you know they’re way over, bid $1 (or at least pretty conservatively).

If you have the incredible good fortune of being able to pick whether you’d like to bid or pass – unless you are a boat enthusiast, I’d say just bid on your showcase if you have a car in it.

stress of it being almost 95

One showcase almost always has a car. The other one – sure, it may have another car or an SUV, or it may be all trips. And all those things are lovely.

(Although taxes on a showcase full of trips unfortunately might make it too cost prohibitive to take those trips.)

But the other choice that second showcase could be is a water themed one.

From what I’ve heard, boats and those things are SO much harder to sell than cars. Personally, I wouldn’t take my chances. Perhaps you’re a bigger gambler than I am.

If so, go for it and when you get an even better car, come laugh and gloat here in the comments.

Also, if you do happen to bid first – I know it’s incredibly important not to overbid, however, don’t underbid too much either. I saw a girl bid $18,000 for a showcase with a car, $3,500 cash and an iPad.

Even if you don’t know the price of everything. Take a moment and do a little math in your head. If you know for a fact there’s $3,500 in your showcase, that means you think that car is less than a $14,500 car. (And that’s assuming the iPad is worth nothing.)

I have never seen a car (in modern times) on The Price is Right go for under $16,000.

The girl lost her showcase by $12. ($12!) And that’s why when you’re a contestant on TPiR, I literally cannot stress enough, you have all the time in the world!

I mean, they’re on a schedule and I’m sure at some point Drew will ask you to make a decision. But talk it out if you have to. Do the math. Take a deep breath. Don’t just pull a random number for your showcase out of thin air. Think about how much you think each item costs, and how they all fit together.

I don’t know if any of the advice of the past 4 days has been helpful to any of you. But if it does help you, please let me know that it did (once you’re allowed to).

Side note: I saw someone on twitter the other day tweet to over 1,000 followers(!) that he’d just won a car but to keep it secret.

Uh, what? It’s twitter. If it’s gotta be secret, don’t tweet it. So, I suppose that’s my last piece of advice. They can take away your prizes if word gets out in the world. Don’t take that chance. Just be patient. (It’s a virtue.)

6 thoughts on “Price Is Right Contestant Strategies – Part 4 (The Wheel & The Showcase)”

  1. Year 41 (last season) was the worst I’ve ever seen in years on The Price is Right and to make matters worse, Season 41 has now set the record for most Double Overbids in a single season at 22. When Season 42 premieres, Drew Carey better tell the contestants the most important rule during the Showcase round: whoever comes closest to the actual retail price of your own Showcase “without going over” wins.

    1. I think people know the rules and just must get flustered in the moment. Or they might not know how much things cost. I think it’s really hard to price the trips. And I know practically nothing about water-related things (boats, jet-skis, etc.).

      I understand if it’s your first game show, in the moment, in the lights, in the terror – you just make a mistake. From home it’s easy to yell at them (and I always do), but I completely understand how it could happen.

  2. My advice to the contestants: during the Showcase round, if a contestant bids or pass the first Showcase and for some reason that person bids too much, you always have to bid $1 on the second Showcase if you really think that your opponent went “over” and never attempt to use a “safe bid” like that if you try bid somewhere like $5,000 or $10,000. In my opinion, Bob Barker will always be 10x better than Drew Carey.

    1. I’m always surprised when it seems that someone’s bid about $10,000 over, and the other person doesn’t just bid $1. I guess nerves get the better of people in that moment.

      As far as Drew vs. Bob, I think everyone missed Bob Barker right after he left, because how could you not? He kind of was the show. However, I think Drew’s had a great attitude everything, and has really made the show his own. He’s totally grown on me (of course, that could be because I was on the show :)). I just feel like I can’t really compare them. They’re both great in their own ways.

    2. This makes no sense. Showcases are never <15000. You should bid something like 12000. What if by some fluke the other person did NOT overbid? By bidding $1 you are already "UNDER" by probably $20,000.

      1. I mean, obviously you can do whatever you want. But just as people sometimes bid $1 in contestants’ row, it’s just a fun Price is Right thing to do. Also, if somehow a person did not overbid when you’re pretty sure they did, then they are probably very close. And you’re still probably not going to get the prize by being so far. But to each her own! Thanks for commenting 🙂

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