I hit "post message" too quickly. <G>

No, Charles, you don't have the chip rack. You may have "The Chip Rack," though. And if you do, thank you and I hope you're enjoying it.

You asked how to use the book. There's an Introduction and a Users Guide in the book that discuss exactly that question. You asked about trade value. That, I believe, is one of the best uses of "The Chip Rack." So long as both traders use the same edition of the book and trade value for value, they're both getting a pretty square deal.

Clearly not necessary when trading current Nevada chips for other current Nevada chips. But what happens when you want to trade current for obsolete? Or Nevada for something else? Or roulette chips (with no denomination) for value checks? That's when a price guide comes in handy, I think.

Someone asked me recently to trade five of my $1 Nevada chips for a $5, all current chips. I declined. If I went to a dealer to replace those $1's, they'd cost me $15-$20. I could buy the $5 chip for $7.50-$10: half as much. Actually, that's just what I did.

Again, there are plenty of uses for "The Chip Rack" other than determining whether you've made a "good investment" in chips. One of the features of the book that may help you if you're looking for trends (hint: there aren't any - chip prices fluctuate on an individual chip basis, often because of increased supply or decreased demand), is the "plus" and "minus" characters next to chips whose prices have changed since the last edition. You can easily see whether particular chips have risen or fallen in value by looking at that column in the book.

Michael