Auction of Evil: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Tucker:''' I Dunno, they're gonna steal it and auction it off to the highest bidder or something<br />

'''Caboose:''' GASP! They're like Evil Ebay!|''[[Red vs. Blue (Machinima)|Red vs. Blue]]''}}

Proof that [[Even Evil Has Standards]], The Bad Guys [[Truce Zone|will show some sport]] and allow for other baddies to meet underground and place bids on a Destructive Piece of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] or other significant [[Doomsday Device|Doomsday Devices]]s.

Does not always involve the classic "English auction" (that's the "going once, going twice" sort), instead using sealed bids. More refined.

* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' has an arc where the crew's friend Camie the Mermaid gets kidnapped and sold into the slave trade (live mermaids being especially valuable.) Luffy and co. attend the local slave auction and try to buy her freedom, even if it costs them every cent they have. But the very first bid turns out to be far more than they've got. Guess it's time to switch to plan B: [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|punch the guy who bought her in the face, rescue the girl, and tear the whole place apart, even though it meant they'd bring the entire world government upon them.]]

* In episode eight of ''[[Cool Devices (Anime)|Cool Devices]]'', Maya is captured by slavers and sold at an English-style auction, starting at 200 credits and being raised to about 360 before Estilgar [[Whammy Bid|bids five million on her]].

* An issue of ''[[The Brave and Thethe Bold]]'' comic book starring [[Superman]] and [[Batman|Catwoman]] featured an underworld auction where one of the items being sold was the location of the cave containing the Clayface protoplasm.

* The Venom symbiote was auctioned to the highest bidder eventually in ''[[Spider -Man]]'' comics by Eddie Brock himself. All the top villains were in attendance, as were scrubs like the Looter. Mobster Don Fortunado won and gave the it to his wimpy son Angelo in hopes that it'll toughen him up. Angelo got himself killed pretty quickly and the symbiote found its way to Macdonald "Mac" Gargan, formerly the Scorpion, who's had it ever since.

* ''[[The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (Film)|The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother]]''. Professor Moriarty sets up an mini-auction between Russia and France for the stolen Redcliff Document. On YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ym-Das0s84 here].

* ''[[Cradle 2 Thethe Grave]]'', magical super plutonium is being sold to a collection of the world's biggest, baddest baddies. The Chairman from ''Iron Chef America'' plays the seller.

* [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]:

** ''[[Diamonds Are Forever (Film)|Diamonds Are Forever]]''. After Blofeld launches his [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] equipped [[Kill Sat]], he sets up "An international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder."

** ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (Film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]''. Cairo nightclub owner Max Kalba sets up an auction between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. over plans for a system that can track submarines underwater.

** ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies (Film)|Tomorrow Never Dies]]'' opens with [[James Bond]] infiltrating a weapons bazaar where various military grade weapons are being sold to terrorists.

* Takes place at the end of ''[[Steel (Filmfilm)|Steel]]'' with the [[Big Bad]] attempting to auction off his (actually, stolen from the US Army) [[Energy Weapon|Energy Weapons]]s. However, being smart, he only sells them the weapons, not the means to maintain them or make more in order for them to keep paying for his services (right after offing his partner and hired thugs in a [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] moment).

* ''The Ersatz Elevator'', the sixth book in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', ends in an auction when the Baudelaires THINK that {{spoiler|Duncan and Isadora are hidden in an item called "V.F.D.", but it turns out that they're hidden in a large sculpture of a [[Red Herring|red herring]].}}

*** The Daleks lose because they don't have noses or ears to gesture with. <ref>Actually, they never reached the auction, being brutally slain by the Krotons earlier.</ref>

* The ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'' book ''Proven Guilty'' has a member of the White Court abduct Harry Dresden and auction him off ''on eBay'' to all those he's severely pissed off. The bidding got up into the millions.<ref>Harry does not make friends easily.</ref>

* Jack Vance's ''[[The Demon Princes (Literature)|The Demon Princes]]'' series plays this trope straight, subverts it AND ''inverts'' it in the second book, ''The Killing Machine''. Interchange is a planet which specialises in kidnap victim/ransom exchanges, acting as intermediary between the villain and anyone who chooses to pay the ransom. Everyone wins, because the villain can rest assured he will get his money while the ransoming party knows the person they're coughing up for is guaranteed to be alive and well and in good health (in custody at Interchange, NOT in the villain's lair). In order to avoid the loathsome attentions of a master criminal (the [[Big Bad]] of the episode), the heroine approaches Interchange and posts a "ransom" for ''herself'', far beyond the capacity of anyone to pay. How {{spoiler|Kirth Gersen}} goes about subverting the system is the subject of the first half of the book.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'':

* ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' episode "[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649226 Doomsday]". An industrialist sets up an auction to sell weapons-grade plutonium and other items needed to produce an H-bomb to the highest bidder.

* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' "Parting Gifts" Cordelia is kidnapped and her "Seer's Eyes" are put up for bid.

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', Crichton sets up one of these for the wormhole knowledge inside his brain. He doesn't intend to actually let the auction conclude, but merely uses the competition between the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s this stirs up as a cover for his real plans. Needless to say, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|it's awesome.]]

{{quote| '''Crichton:''' What am I offered for all the powers of the universe?}}

* During the episode "Q-less" on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]],'' Quark auctioned off a bunch of stuff brought through the newly discovered wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. One of the items up for auction turned out to be a [[Negative Space Wedgie|dangerous crystal]] which had been causing power outages and other problems all episode, and--ofand—of course--nearlycourse—nearly destroyed the station.

* On ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', several episodes have shown that the demons have auctions for the souls bought through a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]], and their own bazaar where they go for trading, and an enterprising demon can even make money by making a [[Reality Television]] audience for demon participants and a demon audience.

* In the third season of ''[[24 (TV)|24]]'', an undercover Jack Bauer is trying to get a deadly virus when it turns into a sealed bid auction, with the other bidder being {{spoiler|Nina Myers}}.

* Avon is paraded at a slave auction in one episode of ''[[Blake's Seven7|Blakes Seven]]''.

* In ''[[Devil Survivor (Video Game)|Devil Survivor]]'', this is how you "acquire" new demons. If the bids are too close, it passes from English-type auction to a sealed-type.

* In [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091012 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]]'' [[Story Arc]] Torg and company infiltrate a supervillain auction for Dr. Shankraft's Displacement Drive. It quickly turns into a [[Nasty Party]].

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' "Harlequinade" a group of gangsters auction off a bomb only for it to be stolen by the Joker.

* ''[[The Spectacular Spider -Man]]'' "Accomplices" The Specs for The Rhino's suit are on the block.

* ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' had a variation of this with a raffle, hosted by The Lobe, the winner being allowed to {{spoiler|set off the giant wooden horn which would play a note at Freakazoid's resonant frequency, shattering him}}. Naturally all of Freak's villains were there to get in on this (and I'm pretty sure [[Candle Jack]] was

* Parodied in ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' animated series, in which Brainchild auctions off the Tick after turning into a two-headed hermaphroditic bluebird that only speaks high-school French and lays chocolate eggs.

* ''[[Darkwing Duck (Animationanimation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' episode 'In Like Blunt' had the villain turn his lair into an island resort and auction off a list of various S.H.U.S.H. agents' names. {{spoiler|All as bait to trap a rival. Of course, he still held the auction.}}

* ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' "Legends Of The Dark Mite": Catman attempts to sell a rare wild tiger.

* A ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' cutaway has Stewie attending a perfectly normal auction, that just happens to offer a machine capable of enslaving humanity.

* In the Ruby-Spears ''[[Mega Man (Animationanimation)|Mega Man]]'' cartoon, one episode had Dr. Wily shrink entire American cities - specifically, [[New York City|New York]], [[Washington DC|Washington]], and [[The Windy City|Chicago]] - and then encase them in glass before auctioning them off to the highest bidder. One scene of the Robot Masters driving around in their van also had Guts Man mention that [[Pittsburgh]], [[Cleveland Rocks|Cleveland]], and [[Los Angeles]] were next on the list.

* ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' during the "Super Powers" era, had an episode where the Justice League infiltrated an intergalactic auction to prevent anyone from getting their hands on a piece of Gold Kryptonite, in order to protect Superman. The Kryptonite ended up in [[Darkseid]]'s hands. The auction itself was a pretty elaborate event, the barker even having an [[Green-Skinned Space Babe| attractive female alien as a model]] to display the lots up for sale.

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