Danny Wallis' bidding mistake on The Block: What didn't make the TV edit of the auction finale

This year’s finale of The Block contained more drama than a room full of soap opera scriptwriters, but there was one crucial moment that didn’t make the final edit of Sunday night’s show.

It was within the first few moments of Steph and Gian’s auction.

Serial Block buyer and philanthropist Danny Wallis was the first to open the bidding on House 4 with one of his trademark wacky bids.

With an eye-watering $3,999,999.99, Wallis was straight out of the blocks, and auctioneer Tom Panos didn’t take long to start to call it.

But as buyer’s agent Frank Valentic asked if the property was on the market, Wallis all of a sudden paled, saying, “hang on, I’ve made a mistake”, looking down at his notes and counting out loud.

There was an intake of breath, then a beat, then Valentic quickly countered with a bid of $4 million – and the moment passed.

As we now know, Steph and Gian’s Japandi-style house sold under the hammer to billionaire Adrian Portelli for a record $5 million, snagging the high school sweethearts the series win and $1.75 million in prize money.

But the question on everyone’s lips afterwards was: what was the “mistake” Wallis had been talking about?

The opening bid on on Eliza and Liberty’s property, of $3,099,999.99, could be the best clue. While similar sounding, it was a whopping $900,000 lower..

Could this have been the bid Wallis meant to open with for House 4?

“Yes. Absolutely yes. Everyone commented on that,” said Michael Townsend, principal at McGrath St Kilda, who also represented House 1 contestants Kyle and Leslie.

“In my mind, he was about to retract his opening bid on House 4. Of course, you can’t take it back – but that’s what everybody felt – if Frank [Valentic] had let him speak, I would’ve imagined he realised his mistake with that bid and was about to change something.

“You could see it in his face; the euphoria came over him when Frank raised him. It solidified his mistake.”

Townsend said an opening bid of $3,099,999.99, rather than $3,999,999.99, could have been game-changing.

“Things could’ve ended up very differently,” he said.

“If his comment about his mistake had actually stopped the auction and they’d gone and consulted the auctioneer, called over Consumer Affairs [Victoria], and he’s dropped it down to something like$3,499,999.99, that could have meant Portelli may have only paid $4.5 million, rather than $5 million, which would’ve been less money for the contestants,” he said.

“We’ll never know, but it was definitely something we were talking about afterwards.”

Townsend said Portelli was always going to outbid Danny Wallis, irrespective of the amount Danny threw out to the auctioneer.

“There’s a reason why Adrian came, in my mind – and it was to take Danny’s soul away,” he said.

“After last year at Gisborne, when Danny said ‘can you even afford this?’ There was all the chatter about him being a dummy bidder. He came with a strategy. And that’s why he bid against himself for House 5 – to almost to poke fun at himself for being a dummy bidder.”

Tom Panos was the auctioneer for Steph and Gian’s House 4 and he described it as “the most eventful auction I’ve ever done in my life”.

“It had everything. It had Danny with his funny bids. I’m not quite sure [what he was doing], but one thing I’ll tell you about Danny – like most of the bidders that are regular bidders – they know how to put on a show,” he said.

“I’m not 100 per cent certain whether that was a show or that was real. But regardless, at the end of the day you saw that there were other bidders even above Danny. It’s an extraordinary result.”

Aaron Hill of Ray White Sunbury was Steph and Gian’s agent. He said it’s possible Wallis went in too high, too early, and then realised his mistake.

“I think he was always going to pay around $4 million bracket. Maybe he went too high at the start, maybe he made a mistake in that he wasn’t going to bid big first. You don’t know what bidders have in their minds,” he said.

“My thoughts before the auction were that he would always pay in the high $3 million to $4 million bracket. He went too high, too quick maybe and really, Danny could have even paid more but Adrian [Portelli] just went bang. Danny could’ve paid $4.5 million, but for Adrian’s $1 million knockout bid.

“In the end, Adrian Portelli went on to show everyone he was no dummy bidder.”