Well, Archie... you ever try to explain to someone why that common as dirt chip is not rare, and they keep evading your points and coming back with bogus arguments to defend their position? Frustrating huh? Well, history tells me I don't stand a chance of a fart in a windstorm of getting you to actually listen to a word I'm typing, but you're dead wrong.

More than once, many more, I have found chips in inventory at a casino that were previously sold out, or I was told they were sold out. When I first decided to collect, I decided I wanted a Hilton '98 $5 HAN. This was late '98. Three different times I was told they were out. Finally I talked to a cage person who actually gave a rip, and was asked how many I wanted. They had plenty back in the vault. Over a year ago Harrah's was out of the '94 HAN, or so they said. A little while later I bought a stack. I was told somebody returned 60 of them. That's not some hypothetical fluke. It happens A LOT. But that's not the point.

A chip is not obsolete simply because the casino is out of stock. A chip is obsolete when it is no longer considered current by the casino. You don't decide what's obsolete, they do. The complication is, they are not always forthright in disclosing their true intentions. So we often have to infer from the reasonable evidence available. A redemption notice is reasonable evidence. A complete change of rack, a name change or closure all indicate a chip will likely no longer be used for it's original purpose.

But you go ahead and muddy the waters on how to deal with LEs. And Dean will go ahead and call his common chips rare. And Kelly will, well, Kelly will continue to amuse and baffle all who cross her/his/its path .