I guess I'm trying to take it a step further back on the "chain." I see plenty of current silver strikes selling on Ebay for $12 to $15.So If I'm a gambler but not a collector who wins a silver strike and sells it to a dealer who's going to sell in on Ebay, I figure he can't give me very much more than face. And if I have to mail the SS to the dealer or burn gas driving to him, I'm going to make even less. So I guess I can hardly see the incentive for anyone to bother selling a common Silver Strike to a dealer instead of cashing it in. (I do know why you'd want to collect it, just can't understand why people are bothering with the tiny profit that seems to be available on the common, current strikes.)
By the way, I think Silver Strikes are a neat collectible, just to trying to figure it out :-)