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This happened in one of the Monopoly games I had a while ago.

It was a 3-player game. Two players were in prison when the incident occurred. The third player (let's call him Joe) landed on the unowned property in his turn. This is what he said:

I don't want to buy it for the base price. Therefore, the property should go to an auction. I'm willing to bid $1 for this property. No-one else can bid, since both of you are in prison, so - I won the auction.

Is this legal in the game of Monopoly?

2 Answers 2

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"Anyone can bid in an auction, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price."

Also, more official rules PDF.

From other forums I have visited, it seems as though most people do not play by the rules, the entire rules, and nothing but the rules...

6
  • 1
    Thanks for the answer. It clearly says that in the rules. The problem was, we were playing some Monopoly "clone" game that had a bit different rules, and there was one stating "you cannot buy property, houses or hotels while in jail". I'm not sure if it also disallowed collecting rent. Anyway, I'm not a big enthusiast of Monopoly, so I didn't think the rules may differ from the original.
    – beam022
    Oct 25, 2012 at 18:46
  • That's interesting... So the game (board, pieces, money, etc) was entirely a "knockoff"?? Oct 25, 2012 at 20:10
  • 1
    Exactly. With slightly changed rules (for worse), as it appears...
    – beam022
    Oct 25, 2012 at 20:15
  • In that case it sounds like in this knockoff, what he did was legal (assuming that the knockoff still has a rule that if the person who lands on a property doesn't want to buy it; it goes to auction.
    – GendoIkari
    Nov 18, 2013 at 23:58
  • @beam022 Did the knockoff still allow for auctions?
    – Sparr
    Nov 26, 2013 at 17:43
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Being in prison means that a player can't MOVE. But it doesn't prevent him or her from doing anything else.

That means that these players can trade properties, build houses/hotels, or buy property at auction.

It is, of course legal to buy a property at auction for $1, but Joe would have to outbid all other players, whether or not in jail.

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