History Main / AccidentalBid

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': In "Divided We Sail," Barney fills in for stage-frightened Fred on the game show "[[Series/ThePriceIsRight The Prize is Priced]]" where the contestants are bidding on a fishing pole. When it's Barney's turn to bid, he quips "Well, I'll just put my two cents in," which gets recorded on his tote screen as a bid of two cents. He actually wins and gets the bonus prize attached to it: a houseboat.

* Referenced in one of the ''Literature/BabysittersClub'' books when their school holds a charity auction; Kristy notes that her only context for how auctions work is from movie scenes in which someone sneezes and then has to buy something terribly expensive. She's later relieved to learn that this isn't reality, as the auction actually requires bidders to both raise their hand and actually call out the bid amount to signal a bid.

* A variation of this occurs in ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''; Ralph and Vanellope fully intended to visit [=eBay=] - represented in Cyberspace as a vast auction house - to find the last remaining ''Sugar Rush'' steering wheel. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome However, being video game characters from the arcade era, they have no understanding how money, let alone auctions, actually work]] and mistake it for a game where the person who shouts the highest number wins, leading to them bidding the absurdly high sum of $27,001 for the wheel. Them attempting to scrounge up that amount in less than eight hours constitutes a significant chunk of the movie's plot.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'': Blondie and Dagwood were at least smart enough to know and try to avoid this when they attended an auction... unfortunately, Dagwood [[HiccupHijinks developed a case of the hiccups.]]

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Buster accidentally bids on his mother's best friend and chief social rival, whom he was trying to avoid, when he was supposed to bid on his mother(the two share a first name).

* Referenced in one of the ''Literature/BabysittersClub'' books where when their school holds a charity auction, one of the girls confidently declares that she's familiar with how auctions work from movie scenes in which someone sneezes and then has to buy something terribly expensive.

->''Syntax delighted beyond measure\\

-> Syntax delighted beyond measure
-> Nodded to express his pleasure,
-> But started when the auctioneer
-> Told him he was the purchaser.

* ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'': The 1986 version had a short called "Lights, Camera, Auction!" where Dennis and Mr. Wilson go to an auction. Wilson winds up winning several very expensive items, and is warned to pay or else!

* In one episode of ''Mario Eats Italy'' -- Mario Batali's show on the Creator/FoodNetwork 2001-2003, in which he tours Italy with his idiot assistant Rooney -- they go to a seafood auction at some seaport town; it's run as a reverse auction, with a continuously-descending price for each lot of fish (or whatever) displayed, and the first to press the button gets the lot at the displayed price. Rooney leans on a button accidentally, landing Batali and Rooney with a tray of seafood for which they have paid far too much, and they wander the streets of town looking for someplace to cook it before it spoils.

* On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Joey once bought an expensive boat at auction because he thought that he was meant to guess the price of the boat rather than pay that amount.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Joey attends a charity auction and ends up making the winning bid on a yacht for $20,000, which he doesn't have. He then admits that he didn't know how a silent auction works. He assumed he was supposed to ''guess'' how much the boat was worth and winning meant he got it for free.

* In ''[[Literature/TheBagthorpeSaga Bagthorpes Haunted]]'', Mr Bagthorpe chooses the worst possible bidding sign for someone who spent the night before staying up hoping to see ghosts -- a half-stifled yawn. Predictably, he ends up buying a large amount of useless items, including an ancient gramophone that plagues them for quite some time. Due to a lack of coordination, he also accidentally gets into a bidding war with his wife over several pieces of bad furniture they want for the house.

* A variation of this occurs in ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''; Ralph and Vanellope fully intended to visit [=eBay=] - represented in Cyberspace as a vast auction house - to find the last remaining ''Sugar Rush'' steering wheel. [[RealityEnsues However, being video game characters from the arcade era, they have no understanding how money, let alone auctions, actually work]] and mistake it for a game where the person who shouts the highest number wins, leading to them bidding the absurdly high sum of $27,001 for the wheel. Them attempting to scrounge up that amount in less than eight hours constitutes a significant chunk of the movie's plot.

* In ''The Bagthorpe Saga'' the father chose the worst possible bidding sign for someone who'd spent the night before staying up hoping to see ghosts -- a half-stifled yawn. Predictably, he ended up buying a large amount of useless items, including an ancient gramophone that plagued them for quite some time. Due to a lack of coordination, he also accidentally got into a bidding war with his wife over several pieces of bad furniture they wanted for the house.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', when Doug and Skeeter answer the questions of a rock band named The Beets at an attempt to win two tickets for the concert, they are stuck answering the last question: What is the name of the Beets album that showed a microscopic picture of Chap Lipman after his gallbladder surgery, which Doug inadvertently answered, "Beats Me", which is actually the name of the band's album (Beets Me is the pun), thus winning tickets to the concert for him and Skeeter.

* A variation of this occurs in ''Disney/RalphBreaksTheInternet''; Ralph and Vanellope fully intended to visit [=eBay=] - represented in Cyberspace as a vast auction house - to find the last remaining ''Sugar Rush'' steering wheel. [[RealityEnsues However, being video game characters from the arcade era, they have no understanding how money, let alone auctions, actually work]] and mistake it for a game where the person who shouts the highest number wins, leading to them bidding the absurdly high sum of $27,001 for the wheel. Them attempting to scrounge up that amount in less than eight hours constitutes a significant chunk of the movie's plot.

-->-- '''Danny''', ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' ''VS'': TableTopGames/{{Monopoly}}

* Used at least once in an ''Franchise/{{Archie|Comics}}'' comic: Betty tries to tell Archie -- over traffic noise --how much money she's saved up and ends up accidentally getting the winning bid on a stuffed moose's head. Considering how often staple comedy devices are used in Franchise/ArchieComics, this is probably not the only example in existence.