'Waste of our time': Wildest auction moments over 20 seasons of The Block

Aussies love an auction almost as much as we love sport on weekends and a Bunnings sausage. Melbourne, in particular, is the auction capital of the country, with hundreds of homes going under the hammer every weekend, rain, hail or shine.

Whether it’s for your own market research or just a general stickybeak to see how much your neighbours home will sell for, there’s something about watching  auction action that we can’t get enough of.

The same can be said for the hit reality series, The Block.

The latest from The Block

Check out exclusive content weekly, including floor plans, expert renovation advice and property insights.

Explore the In The Know Hub

Sure, we love watching the renovations and room reveals each week, the contestant drama and scandals, but really, we’re all in it for the auctions; tuning in to see who’ll be crowned winners, if they all sold, and who had a dummy spit. It’s one of the most real “reality” shows on television, as no one knows what’s going to unfold on auction day.

Here are the wildest auction moments we’ve seen on The Block over 20 seasons.

Jimmy and Tam’s fake bidder scandal

It’s safe to say this one will go down as the wildest scandal in The Block’s history.

It was a roller-coaster finale for the 2020 fan favourites, Jimmy and Tam. The couple were crowned winners after a bid of $4.256 million was made on their Brighton home. The champagne was flowing, and emotions were high, but the celebrations were short-lived.

The bidder failed to settle after producing fraudulent documents suggesting the deposit and final payment had gone through, even though it had not. The property was offered to market again in December of that year.

The house sold in June 2021 for $4 million, $256,000 less than the original sale price, but Jimmy and Tam kept their million-dollar prize money.

Danny Wallis buys his first Block property

Back in 2012, the show’s fifth season, we saw now-serial Block property buyer Danny Wallis for the first time. We didn’t know it then, but we’d come to see much more of Wallis and his interesting auction tactics. His erratic bidding, now his signature style, often causes confusion for agents, buyers, and even Wallis himself.

Wallis placed the winning bid of $1,400,001.01 on 403 Dorcas St, South Melbourne – Mike and Andrew’s place – and snagged his first Block home. The property was used by Ronald McDonald House Charities before Wallis sold it in 2016 for $1.73 million.

Wallis must have loved the auction; he returned in 2019 to snap up Mitch and Mark’s home at The Oslo. In 2020, he bought three properties – Harry and Tash’s, Sarah and George’s and Daniel and Jade’s – and did the same the following year when he bought Mitch and Mark’s, Tanya and Vito’s and Kirsty and Jesse’s homes in Hampton. In 2022, Wallis again made his mark, buying Tom and Sarah-Jane’s, Rachel and Ryan’s and Omar and Oz’s properties for a whopping $5,666,666.66.

The first Block auction fail

In 20 seasons of The Block, Nine has given away $33,892,639.27 in prize money to its contestants. Some serious money has been made over the years, and last year’s winners, Steph and Gian, made Block history when they took home an eye-watering $1.75 million in winnings.

Many of The Block contestants have had their financial futures changed by their winnings: a well-deserved reward for the three months of labour, sleepless nights, time away from family and jobs, and often, on-set reality TV drama.

But amid all of the cries of relief, displays of jubilation, and tears of happiness, there have also been scenes of heartbreak.

Way back in 2010, in Season 3, contestants Chez and Brenton became the very first contestants to walk away empty-handed on auction day.

Set in an apartment block in Vaucluse in Sydney’s exclusive eastern suburbs, the couple got close to hitting the $880,000 reserve for their renovated three-bedroom unit on the top floor of the building, but it ultimately failed to sell.

They were devastated at the time, but the home did sell one week later for $970,000, meaning they ended up pocketing $90,000 in winnings.

The auctions where contestants made $0 profit

If failing to sell on auction day sounds bad, it can get far worse. Over the years, there have been other homes that have sold on the day – but for no profit, or barely any profit at all. There are no guarantees when contestants sign up that they will walk away with a fat wad of life-changing cash.

Only one year after Chez and Brenton of Season 3 became the first contestants in the show’s history to fail on auction day, Season 4 contestants Amie and Katrina fared far worse.

Their property at 41 Cameron Street, Richmond, had a reserve price of $860,000, and was sold for exactly that amount post-auction, meaning Amie and Katrina walked away with no prize money following months of hard work.

The sisters didn’t mince words following their break-even auction result, describing their experience as a “waste of time”.

Season 18 contestants Dylan and Jenny endured the same heartbreak when their home failed to sell on a roller-coaster auction night in Gisborne during Season 18 when Omar and Oz pocketed $1.686 million, and other constants struggled to meet their reserves.

The home remained unsold for nearly six months before eventually selling for $3.9 million, $180,000 below its original reserve, and the couple ended up with $0 in prize money.

Other heartbreaking results included couples Darren and Deanne, and Michael and Carlene, all from Season 9, and all of whom made just $10,000.

Steph and Gian’s record-breaking auction

Last year’s auction finale in Charming Street at Hampton East delivered high-octane drama, wild bidding tactics, and a history-making $1.75 million profit – and that was all within the first 20 minutes of the day.

Steph and Gian’s house, which had been tipped to take out the win since early on in the season, went to auction first, and the bidding came in fast and furious from the outset.

Only minutes in, with a $4 million bid from buyer’s agent Frank Valentic already in play, a cry was heard from the crowd and the auction immediately stopped – a young woman attending with one of the registered bidders had collapsed.

Shocked, Nine producers and the camera crew rushed to assist and a medical team was called. Steph and Gian watched on with Scott Cam from another room in distress.

The woman was eventually taken away in an ambulance by paramedics. Within seconds of the auction resuming and without warning, Adrian “Mr Lambo” Portelli casually raised his paddle and called out “five million dollars” – a jaw-dropping $1 million increase on the previous bid.

That $1 million absolutely wiped the bidding floor, knocking out philanthropist Danny Wallis and buyer’s agent Frank Valentic.

There was an audible gasp from the crowd and dropped jaws from Steph and Gian. When the hammer came down, that final bid put their sale at a massive $1.65 million above their reserve of $3.35 million, netting them the win and total prize money of $1.75 million – including the $100,000 winners’ prize.

When Portelli bid against … himself. Three times

First-time renovators and loveable Melbourne sisters Eliza and Liberty shocked many, themselves included, when their home was knocked down to Portelli for $4.3 million – $1.05 million above their $3.25 million reserve.

But the bigger shock was how House 5 won, with Portelli bidding against himself three times to land the property.

Selling agent Nick Renna of Jellis Craig Brighton said it was one of the strangest auctions he’d ever done – and Portelli admitted afterwards he “didn’t know” why he did it.

“Everyone went a bit quiet, so I think I was trying to rev them up a bit,” he said.

That “rev-up” cost Portelli a lot of extra money but landed the sisters a spot on the list as one of the biggest winners in The Block‘s history.

Danny Wallace’s bidding mistake – what didn’t make the TV edit in 2023

Only those who were there on auction day noticed it in 2023, as this small but crucial moment didn’t make the final edit of the Sunday night show, and 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.

Later on, spectators were asking: what was the “mistake” Wallis had been talking about?

The opening bid on Eliza and Liberty’s property, of $3,099,999.99, was 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,” Michael Townsend, principal at McGrath St Kilda, said at the time.

“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 [2022] 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.”