Hi, folks. I just got my copy of the May Gaming Times. which, I think, all of us know is Bill Akeman's monthly "slick" magazine. I look forward to it, not only for the several neat articles--such as Silverman's "Electronic Chipper" and Janice O'Neal's report on new chips and tokens but also for the report on Bill's monthly auction. I applaud Bill's choice of chips--which include not only some rare and very expensive items--but some "cheapies" as well. Although I have not yet made a single bid on a single chip, I follow the auction closely as it is a good indicator on chip prices. Concentrating mostly on Nevada chips [though there are A.C. & other chips included], it is my barometer of Nevada chip values. The March Auction of 219 chips and tokens is in. I went over it and when I had completed an examination of what had been visited upon my own collection, thought that it might be interesting to compile a report of at least the Nevada chips. Here's what I found [now, folks, I'm not a mathematician and got "C's in my college Econ courses, particularly disliking Statistics 301--so these figures are not Gospel--but should be pretty close to accurate]. I inventoried 166 Nevada chips--those that sold and those that I could identify with any degree of certainty. I compared them with the value codes assigned to these chips by The Chip Rack - 1997 Edition in an effort to see 1) how the Rack value held up and 2) how my own chips were "holding up." Here are the "results." Without the analysis, let me say that the GAMING TIMES auction shows that chip values are HOLDING UP!

By way of explanation, I divided the chip value codes into three categories: A-E = Cheap; F-J = Intermediate and K and up = High. This is somewhat arbitrary and reflect primarily what my children would feel if they knew what I was spending of their inheritance for chips.

OVERALL

A-E = 36 chips
18 chips went up from the CR rated value
16 remained the same
2 went down

F-J = 53 chips
17 went down
8 remained the same
27 went up

K + = 27 chips
13 went down
3 remained the same
11 went up

Summary: 166 Nevada chips averaged a net Grade Increase of .83 from the CHIP RACK listed value. These averages are skewed somewhat by the large gains or losses of a select few chips. For example, two chips from the Golden Hotel in Reno dropped from I & J to F & H. and an Iron Horse that went from J to F; an "L" rated chip that went in the "W" range. But on balance, I think the auction shows that our hobby is sound--maybe we don't want to buy to invest, but when we do buy, we get pretty good value for the dollar spent.