Classic Pit

by Winning Moves

Product Features

• Corner the Market Card Game
• Includes a bell and Original Turn-of-the-Century Artwork
• Ages 8 and up
• 3 to 8 Players
• Nostalgic Tin Case

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B00004YV3T
• Item model number: 1015
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,504 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

Product Description

Editorial Review

It's hard to believe that market trading has survived almost unchanged 100 years after the boisterously fun game of Pit was introduced by Parker Brothers. Yet the Classic Pit Tin still captures the flavor of making deals faster and faster, louder and louder, until the ring of the bell announces the first successful cornering of the market. The cards are sturdy, the artwork is lovely, the rules are simple, and the game is wild. Put it in an attractive tin and you've got a winner. --Rob Lightner

Product Description

Shout your deal and trade your cards to "corner" the market. Be the first to get all the cards of one commodity, slap the "Corner!" board and you'll win the hand. You'll feel like a trader in the pits of the exchange! Beware of the Bear and take your chances with the Bull. PIT is great frenzied fun.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "retro-version" of this fast-paces, fun card game., March 18, 2004

By 

Claude Avary "West Coast Reader" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Classic Pit (Toy)

This edition of the classic card game PIT is the same game as in the Deluxe edition. The only difference is in the look of the cards and the metal case containing the game: the game now looks exactly like it did when it was first released, a hundred years ago. The cards are also a bit sturdier. You might prefer the modern look of the Deluxe set, but playing this version will really take you back to the early days of the commodities market!

The game is centered on the trading of commodities. This sounds dry, but actually this is one of the most enjoyable party games ever invented. It's simple to learn, fast moving, and involves lots of screaming and yelling. (Try to imagine "Go Fish" if nobody takes turns and it was played like a furious farmer's auction). But the game also has a fascinating history and teaches something about the nature of the economy.

The commodities market developed in the 19th century as the modern agricultural economy began to grow in the U.S. When many farmers faced bankruptcy during lean times of the winter season, "forward contracts" -- an agreement between a buyer and a seller on a price, quantity, and a future delivery date of a particular commodity like wheat or beans or coffee -- started to appear. Between the time of the contract purchase and the delivery, the price of the commodity could change rapidly and violently in either direction, so to protect themselves, merchants would travel to Chicago to trade their various contracts and agree on a later delivery date. The location where they traded (originally a room above a flour store) became The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) -- also know as "THE PIT." Today we see the The Pit on television every day, where traders dash about desperately yelling and giving signals to buy or trade contracts on wheat, soybeans, Eurodollars, heating oil, gold, etc.

Thus arose this long-lived card game. By 1904, when the game was first published, the commodities market had exploded into a major economic force in the country, and one in which speculators could lose or gains millions in a short period of time. This game imitates the frenzy of traders on the floor of the Pit, selling and buying contracts on various commodities rapidly so they can "corner" a particular market, and where fortunes can be made or lost in seconds.

This may sound complicated, but PIT is an easy game to learn and addictive to play. Seven-year-olds can pick it up quickly and be trading as hard as an adult player after only one round. The play is simple. A deck of eight different "suits" of nine cards each (commodities like wheat, oats, coffee, and sugar), plus a "bear" card and "bull" card, are dealt to the players. The dealer then rings a bell (included in this set) to declare trading open. Immediately, without any semblance of taking turns or order, the players try to discard cards they don't want by trading them with other players so they can get all nine cards of one commodity in their hand and "corner" that market and win the round. You receive a particular number of points depending on what commodity you've nabbed (wheat, for example, is the most valuable at 100 points). All trading is blind: a player holds up cards of all the same suit he wishes to trade, keeping their backs to the other players, and yells out how many he wants to trade ("I'm selling three! Three! Who wants three!). Other player may ask him to trade less if he they have fewer cards available to offer ("Will you drop to two!? I'll trade two!"). Usually, three or four trades among different players are going on at any time, or players are competing to grab an offered trade first, and the game becomes a furious race to nab that nine-of-a-kind and slam your hand on the bell to announce that you've won the round.

Amongst all this looms the Bear and Bull cards. The Bull is a wild card; you can corner a market with only eight cards plus the Bull. But if the Bull is in your hand when someone else slams the bell, you lose twenty points. The Bear is always bad: you lose twenty points if it's in your hand at the end of the round, and as long as it's in your hand, you can't corner a market. You keep playing rounds until someone gets 500 points and wins the game.

New players may be a bit hesitant with the fast and furious play style, but pretty quickly everyone will be feeling like a real tradier and yelling and wheeling and dealing. I've seen ten-year-olds beat out fifty-year-olds with their enthusiasm. And no one will ever get bored playing this. (Neighbors, however, may complain about the noise.)

The only real drawback to PIT is that it isn't as fun with a small group. The more players you have, the more fun it is. A three-player game is possible, but it isn't as intense as a game of five or more. And eight players (the maximum) is an absolutely amazing thing to see or take part in. Buy this game...you'll be the hit of your next party. It has all the wheeling and dealing of Monopoly in one tenth the time!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Time for All, December 3, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Classic Pit (Toy)

This is a very fun game. It can get quite loud when you play. The object is to collect every card of one kind by blind trading. Everyone is trading at one time so it can be loud. O.K. it WILL be loud. Now every time people come over, they want to play Pit. I wish I got a comission for all the people who went out and bought it after they played at our house. I'm giving some as gifts for Christmas because they are hard to find in the stores.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Exciting Parker Brothers Game Returns To The Market, April 23, 2001

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Classic Pit (Toy)

With a ring of a bell, the trading market is open and the frenzy to collect as many matching crops begins. Pit has entertained countless families since 1904. This new deluxe version even adds an extra crop (rice) to make the game even more exciting. The Parker Brothers game inmitates the setting at an old trading market. The participants trade with one another by yelling for their desired crop. The person who collects all of their product rings the bell for points and a victory. Pit has been passed down through my family from generation to generation, and it never seems to lose its appeal.