Clearance Sale

Clearance Sale
Premiere Date (Barker Era)	September 21, 1998 (#0821K, aired out of order on September 22, 1998)
Premiere Date (Carey Era)	February 15, 2008 (#4205K)
Pricing Game Location	Big Doors
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	Line 'Em Up
Next Premiered Pricing Game	One Wrong Price
Finale Date (Barker Era)	June 5, 2007 (#4022K)
Finale Date (Carey Era)	January 6, 2009 (#4572K)

Clearance Sale was a game where the contestant was shown three prizes. (Similar to Eazy as 1-2-3).

Gameplay

• The contestant was shown three prizes. They were then given three price tags, each with "sale" prices on them, to place on each prize. To win the prizes, the contestant must have placed each tag on a prize with an actual retail price higher than the price on the tag. The contestant won all the prizes as long as all three tags were placed correctly.
• The price tags were always set so the sale price for the most expensive prize was higher than the actual price of the second most expensive prize, which would have a sale price higher than the actual price of the least expensive prize; thus, there is only one combination of price tags which result in a win. This explains why Bob Barker always told contestants that while the lowest sale price could be a sale price on any prize, they must be careful where they put that price.
• Since the game was essentially won by ranking the prizes in order of price, the game is often seen as a carbon copy of Easy as 1-2-3, which has the same goal. However, it took this concept and combined it with Bargain Game by giving the contestant sale prices with which to anchor the values of the prizes.

History

• On the first playing of Clearance Sale, the Easy as 1-2-3 music cue was used. On its second playing on October 1, 1998 (#0834K), it used a western sounding cue. From October 16, 1998 (#0855K) to December 20, 1999 (#1311K), it used a circus style cue. Starting on January 26, 2000 (#1343K), there was a different music cue introduced that would also be used as the Time is Money cue, which starts differently depending on the episode.
• When the game first premiered, the flaps flipped down. The color scheme was red with the flaps in white, with the actual prices below the sale prices. On October 16, 1998 (#0855K), the color scheme changed to blue and red. The stands remain red while the flaps became blue and the flaps flip up to reveal the actual prices, which are now above the sale prices.
• On October 26, 2004 (#3022K), the stands became yellow while the sale price tags remained red and the flaps remained blue.

Trivia

• Clearance Sale's premiere was delayed one day due to coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
• This game and Trader Bob were each played 99 times before being retired.
• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 14 (season 27), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 5 (season 37).
• The odds of winning the game are 1/6.
• Clearance Sale was the only pricing game to regularly use balloons in its set.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement

Clearance Sale was removed from the rotation in January 2009, halfway into Season 37. Its retirement was not made official until nearly a year later, in December 2009. According to Kathy Greco, the game had “run its course” and it wasn’t worth keeping around any longer. For some, the game could be a bit boring. Not helping matters was its low win rate compared to the very similar Eazy as 1-2-3 (Current host Drew Carey believed Clearance Sale was deemed similar to Eazy as 1-2-3).