A word about the bidding method: at Randy's suggestion, the lead-off bids were not only blind, but anonymous... I took all the bids, wrote them down, and then informed the players what the top bid was, and who had it -- and players bid openly from there. This had a nice effect in that those players who didn't start out with the top bid and who didn't bid publically remained anonymous... you knew they weren't on the top end of things, but you didn't really know where they stood. Also, everyone knew the characters who were right at the top of the food chain for each stat, which I think made a lot of sense.
The final ranks available in this generation, and the points they cost, can be found here.
Psyche bidding started out really low (IMHO), and it took awhile to get the players to bid up.
After many comments in which the GM described the horrors of being on the weak end of a trump call and having one's brain turned to pudding, the bidding picked up quite a bit... imagine that. :)
Strength bidding saw more activity -- it started out higher, but ended almost exactly the same as Psyche.
I don't know why it is, but for some reason, Endurance seems to often be hotly contested in my campaigns, this Bidding War was no exception. It's worth noting that the highest starting bid in endurance was a point higher than the final bids in Psyche and Strength:
A lovely three way bid between Mark, Scott and Juli ensued, but Scott bowed out after one round, leaving Mark and Juli heading skyward in a Battle Royale. The final totals looked like this:
By this time, several of the players were getting a little tapped out for points, but as some players had already noted (with suspicion already in their voices), Jackie, Rey, and Randy weren't. Although Randy didn't bid as expected, Jackie and Rey did. :)
Points were flowing pretty freely in the bidding... Here's how it looked at the end:
Player Character Known Ranks Juli (( )) : Total: 92 First in Strength, second in Endurance Mark ((Valharic)) : Total: 80 Second in Psyche, first in Endurance Scott ((Ander)) : Total: 77 Second in Strength, third in Endurance Jackie ((Breann)) : Total: 76 First in Warfare Rey (( )) : Total: 71 Second in Warfare Mike ((Anax)) : Total: 50 First in Psyche Randy ((Quinn)) : Total: 17 ??? :)