No comparison to chips ....... Stamp collectors (of which I too plead guilty to being one during the 50's, 60's and early 70's) brought on most of their own problems that exist in their hobby today ... and that was the hoarding of sheets.

120 MILLION stamps of each commemorative stamp were routinely being printed of each issue and still are. They were primarily printed by the government for the purpose of affixing to envelopes for mail .... yes; and to satisfy the demand that collectors were putting upon postal clerks who put aside sheets for special customers (sound all to familiar chipers?)

It didn't make any difference to the government if they printed a regular issue stamp or a commemorative. They have to routinely produce additional stamps to replace the ones that are constantly being cancelled. Collectors just filled in a need to underwrite some of the production costs. Stamps were also issued as a result of pressures brought upon politicians to honor a particular person, place, or event, that satisfied special interest groups.

LE chips on the other hand are made in much fewer quantities... sometimes in issues of 100, 250, 500. As the collector base grows, (currently 2500+ members alone just in CCGTCC) the number of limited edition chips pretty much stays the same. Problem is that hoarders, collectors and non-collectors alike, who have no place to go with the extra chips they are purchasing, (and freezing out collectors in the process) wind up bringing them back to the cages 3 months, 6 months or more later, to redeem them for the cash they have tied up. This explains the phenomenon that chips that are not available for sale in the cage on one day, but a week or two later they may mysteriously re-appear.

That's why Claridge in A.C., as just one example, has discontinued their monthly chip issuing policy. Too many chips were being returned to the cage for redemption by speculator/investors whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs and didn't know where to go to cash in on their "investment". All they heard was that only 500 chips are made of the $10 chips .... and thousands of collectors belong to a chip collectors club. What these "investors" did not realize is that thousands of collectors do not all collect Atlantic City chips, or Colorado chips, Riverboat chips, or even Las Vegas chips. They then turned to ebay with big profits being anticipated, and the balloon burst when they can't get a an opening bid of a dollar or two over face value because most collectors already have this chip through new issues services and/or via friends who pick them up at face value when issued .... and finally decided it wasn't worth the effort and cashed them all in. The stringent accounting regulations that exist in Atlantic City regarding unsold chip inventory has discouraged most casinos not to even bother issuing new LE's unless they are assured of selling out in a matter of days .... which is why the numbers being issued in A.C. has diminished significantly.

Slabbers are going to discover a similar situation when their crazy horse is let out of the gate. When the craze is over, so will be the day of the slab.

BTW: Unused postage stamps can not be returned to the postal window clerk for refunds. As a result, they are sitting in collectors dark closets and drawers by the millions.... which is what has severely depressed the market. Stamp dealers are oversupplied with much of this stuff and don't want to purchase more for inventory unless it is deeply discounted below face value. It's simply a matter of oversupply.

I've been using assorted 3¢, 4¢, 5¢, 6¢, 8¢ stamps that are 30-40 years old on my utility bill envelopes and other monthly checks written and sent out. I too wish I had collected chips back then ..... (sigh)