... are both necessary to the success of our hobby. In supporting Paul's comments about the desirability of collectors trading/selling chips to each other without tacking on commercial markups, I did not mean to denigrate the many fair and honest dealers who help make the hobby accessible to everyone.

I just took a quick look over the list of my most recent chip acquisitions. Out of 251 chips, I bought 204 from persons I would characterize as dealers. The other 47 came from persons I would call collectors or others I cannot characterize (eBay sellers I do not personally know).

That's 80% from dealers, less than 20% otherwise (BTW, this 20% includes the round robins and trades, not just purchases). Many of my dealer purchases were chips that are obsolete and carried at least somewhat of a premium price tag. Obviously, these would not be available in routine collector trades.

Over the past few years, I have purchased chips from most, if not all, of the well-known dealers who frequent this board (and some who don't). I don't begrudge them their profit, even enough of a profit to make a living from the hobby (which they're not likely to be able to do selling current LE's, even if they charge double face -- am I wrong about that, Archie?).

Having said (and meant) all of that, I nevertheless stand by my opinion that the primary purpose of the CC>CC ought to be the advancement of COLLECTOR interests in the chip collecting hobby. Incidentally, of course, achieving that purpose will also advance DEALER interests to some extent, and there's nothing wrong with that. And, if by advancing DEALER interests, we can also advance COLLECTOR interests, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

The fact remains that there IS a certain amount of tension between purist collectors and some (not all) dealers (after all, most of the dealers are also if not primarily collectors themselves). Like you, Archie, I would hope this tension doesn't lead to Hatfield-McCoy style disputes (we don't need any shootouts at the CC>CC corral!!).

On the other hand, I think it is sometimes helpful to air issues like this in public -- helps prevent lingering resentments from poisoning relationships among members. As long as we stay civil about it (which this particular thread has managed, just barely, to do <g>). ----- jim o\-S