Auction

An auction at Shipwreck City.

"I will start the bidding at one pieces of eight - and with this one I’ll throw in a goat."

―Auctioneer

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. In economic theory, an auction may refer to any mechanism or set of trading rules for exchange. Auctions were commonly used for selling goods, most prominently antiques and artwork, but also secondhand goods and real estate.

Participants bid openly against one another, with each subsequent bid required to be higher than the previous bid. An auctioneer may announce prices, bidders may call out their bids themselves or have a proxy call out a bid on their behalf. The auction ends when no participant is willing to bid further, at which point the highest bidder pays their bid. Alternatively, if the seller has set a minimum sale price in advance (the 'reserve' price) and the final bid does not reach that price the item remains unsold. Sometimes the auctioneer sets a minimum amount by which the next bid must exceed the current highest bid. The most significant distinguishing factor of this auction type is that the current highest bid is always available to potential bidders.

History

When the East India Trading Company offered the French pirate Captain Christophe-Julien de Rapièr a ransom for the imprisoned EITC official Cutler Beckett, de Rapièr decided the ransom money was probably more than young Cutler would fetch in a slave auction, undersized and scrawny as he was, so the pirate decided to let him go.

At some point during his quest to retrieve the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow traded Scarlett and Giselle to the Auctioneer, who led an auction at Shipwreck City, with the sign "Auction—Take a Wench for a Bride" in which a crowd of pirates would bid on the two wenches. The auction ended with the Marquis D'avis's final bid of 700 pieces of silver and two goats. A similar auction may have taken place shortly afterwards, as a "Take a Wench for a Bride" banner was hung somewhere in Tortuga while Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were looking for a crew for the Interceptor.

Behind the scenes

The "Take a Wench for a Bride" banner used on the set of The Curse of the Black Pearl, in reference to the auction banner seen in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

• Auctions first appeared in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. In the ride, there was an impromptu auction taking place in the town's bustling marketplace, where a pirate Auctioneer (Paul Frees) is in the process of selling women of all ages, shapes and sizes to an audience of rowdy buccaneers sitting across the waterway. The Auctioneer extols the virtues of a "pleasantly plump" and positively beaming maiden who is clearly pleased to be landing a husband, even by such unorthodox means. The drunken bidders across the way loudly and clearly make known their clear preference for the next lot on the bloc—a sultry redhead of questionable repute. A big banner, with "Auction—Take a Wench for a Bride" written on it, was included in the Auction scene to get the point across that the pirates weren't "taking advantage" of the ladies, but that they were auctioning them off to be brides. Over the years, the auction scene has remained largely intact since the attraction opened, though the banner comes and goes with some refurbishments.
• The ride's auction scene was first referenced within the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, though the sign was only visible through the "Fly On The Set" special feature, where the "Take a Wench for a Bride" auction banner can be seen on the Tortuga set. Tales of the Code: Wedlocked, a prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl, was inspired by the auction scene with Jack Sparrow having traded Scarlett and Giselle to the Auctioneer in exchange for "a very nice hat".
• In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, a wench auction was held on the island of Coronation Bay, with the Auctioneer selling the imprisoned Carina Smyth to the highest bidder.

Appearances

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean (First appearance)
• Disney Parks Presents: Pirates of the Caribbean
• Pirates of the Caribbean (Little Golden Book)
• Tales of the Code: Wedlocked
• Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow
• Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies

External links

• Auction on Wikipedia