Barker's Marker$

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Bob Barker explaining the rules of "Barker's Marker$" to a contestant

Barker's Marker$ is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on the Season 23 premiere on September 12, 1994, it is played for three prizes (usually valued between $1,000 and $3,000) and a possible $500 bonus.

[edit] Gameplay

After the three prizes are described, the contestant is given $500 and is then shown four possible prices on the gameboard. Three of the prices correspond with the prizes; the fourth is an extra price and does not match up with anything.

The contestant is asked to place markers beside the three prices he believes match up with the prizes. Two of the correct prices are then announced, leaving one prize and two possible prices.

The contestant then decides whether he believes the third marker is correctly placed and keep the $500, or give up the cash and switch the marker to the unmarked price.

A correct decision nets the player all three prizes (plus the $500 if he didn't give it up); however, everything is lost if the unmarked price was correct.

[edit] Trivia

Barker's Marker$ was played one time on the 1994 syndicated version, under the title "Make Your Mark".

Barker's Marker$ is one of three pricing games bearing Bob Barker's name, Barker's Bargain Bar and Trader Bob being the other two.

The show only has one set of five $100 bills, which are used for perfect bids and for this game. If a contestant makes a perfect bid immediately before playing Barker's Marker$, the contestant has to hand the money back to Bob during the prize description so that it can be handed to the contestant again for the game.

On the UK's Bruce's Price Is Right, the game was renamed "Price Tags."

The game's three prizes had a different staging originally. Instead of being on their normal marbled pink risers, they were placed on the stage floor, and the displays that light up their prices were on individual podiums with prize labels on their marbled bases. The current staging, with pink risers that the price displays are attached to, debuted on March 24, 1995. It was changed because the original staging sometimes had the price displays put between prizes, causing confusion for the contestants.

[edit] Strategy

Statistically, assuming the selection of the markers is more-or-less random, a contestant has a 75 percent chance of winning if he switches the mark and a 25 percent chance if he leaves it as-is. There is a 25 percent chance that the contestant has all three marks placed correctly in the first place; switching the mark reverses the odds in the contestant's favor. Unless there is a large price disparity between the two remaining prices, and the contestant is sure that the mark is correct, the contestant is better off switching. This analysis indicates that the game could be considered a variant of the Monty Hall problem.

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