You bid 'tokens' or more specifically 'burdens'. If playing irl, each player takes a certain number of tokens in their hand and whoever has the highest ammount gets to choose if they go first or second.
Those tokens are then immediately placed on your ring-bearer to start the game with that ammount of burdens.
So... You are bidding burdens. Risky, yes. Cards like
Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith In Twilight can really make you pay for bidding
![2 [2]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/2.png)
.
Then again if you're running a site control shadow it's always a good idea to bid at least
![1 [1]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/1.png)
just to be ahead on the adventure path so you can potentially control a site with your first shadow turn. If going second with a site control deck, you may find that you have the cards in hand to control a site, but cannot do so because you will be stuck on site 1 for your first shadow turn.
I really hope this helps. I do however think that maybe your question was asked as a joke, because you've been around this site for a while and should know by now what bidding is all about... Right?