Gene; You are generally acknowledged as one of the voices of reason on this BB and quite correct in your statement that "the Orleans chip was UNIQUE and that there are very few issues of 1,000 that will disappear in 1 day".
However, it only happens once a year that there are so many chippers in town to consume 1000 in chips over TWO days. (These chips were available on Tuesday... according to previous posts). Mel is also correct when he says that lots of "collectors" load up on these issues for future trading down the road. When some collectors say "trading", they sometimes don't mean trading at face value either. If trader "a" has a $5 chip he/she values at $20 and trader "b" has a $5 chip he/she values at $20, they make the trade..... in their mind that's face value. If trader "a" has the same $20 value placed on his/her $5 chip and trader "b" has a $6 or $7 value placed on his/her $5 chip, I doubt if the trade will take place. Dealers do the same thing, except they want the $20 cash for the chip, unless one finds another dealer who will take less. The numbers of chips consumed, whether by dealers and traders however, doesn't change. The "dealer" in these chips gets the bad rap sometimes... as Mel has so vividly pointed out. Archie