I have been reading the posts about the 4Q limited editions and the hammering that Mark Karrol is taking over this. First off, I do not know the story about the Pai Gow chips so I will leave that as another issue. What I would like to address is the arguement about false rarity and the low quantity issues.

I have really scaled back on my collecting of Trop and 4Q chips. The reason is that they are coming out with too many chips. It is my feeling that with all these releases the chips are actually too common. These casinos come out with chips for some of the most rediculous reasons or events. What I mean by that is that there is nothing unusual or unique about a new release. I do pick up a chip if it has a unique or unusual design or if it is an event that is truely special or if it is something that is uniquely gaming or Vegas related. There is no way though that I would, or could, buy all the chips that they come out with.

What Mark had said about art and everything does come in to play. The chips that I collect I pick up because they are little pieces of art. They are unique expressions of something historical or commemorative etc. I don't need something that no one else has but I don't want something that Everyone has or that every casino has produced. If everyone has it or has produced it, it is not unique. One example is some of the Richard Petty chips. One of the first LEs I bought was a Sam's Town 300 chip. Then I found that the same picture was on chips from half of the casinos it town(exageration perhaps). That took the uniqueness out of the chip. As is the case with Y2K or Holiday chips, some casinos have come up with creative and distinctive designs that overcome the commonness of the holiday. I have picked up some of those chips as they are creatively unique or have some other charm to them. I have no interest in all of them though. They start to become to ordinary.

Most of the posts on this subject make good points. There is a line of reason that, in many cases, has been crossed. For example making a limited release of 50 $25 chips is way too extreme. Maybe 500 would be too small. I find that when I look at my $5 LEs most have editions of 750 or 1000 or so. That might be reletively fair if the casinos releasing them had a fair policy for their distribution. I do not want to see dealers or brokers not get their fair share. After all being that it is a 4hr flight to Las Vegas I can not get there myself. I have to rely on these people to help me with my collection. However, I think there is something unfair about people who have racks of chips set aside for them at the cages. Perhaps they should have to stand in line like everyone else. That way all the dealers and brokers and collectors can have an equal chance of getting some of the chips. If there is a release of 1000 chips and if as was mentioned in one of Mark Karrol's posts about the upcoming releases at the 4 Queens they are limiting chips to 20, that would allow 50 people to get full quantities. If there are some regular collectors or smaller dealers in line, that will even further spread out the release of the chip so that there is competition over who has them. They won't all be in the hands of a select few. That, in my opinion is where the problem lies. We have heard on this board about a broker who has a cash reserve in the bank of about $10,000 so that he can buy new releases when they come out. If there are not limits and if he is on a prefered broker list how many chips does a casino have to produce so that he can't buy all or most of the chips.

Personally, I would like to see a couple or few thousand of each edition sold. That would be nice. But I can see how some casinos might want to limit an editon. They know how many chips will sell right away and how many chips they will have to sit on. They are the ones to know what a reasonable edition would be to assure that they all sell out. Then there instances where there is a significance to a limit. 4Q IRS chips for example LTD 1040. Or a New Years chip LTD to 2000 or 2001 or 2002. When you start limiting the editions to such small numbers that the only fair way to distribute them is in quantities of 2 or 5 or less is rediculous. There has to be a fair compromise without having to produce 10,000 chips. As I said before, a few thousand would probably be fair. Sell Half in the cage and put the rest in play. That way some will be able to get Uncirculated chips at the cage and others will be able to get them at the tables. I find it a lot of fun to get one while playing blackjack.

I would like to add here, that I was surprised on my last trip to Vegas to find that the Blue Man chips at Luxor are, appearently not that limited. I bought a couple on ebay for a little more than I should have. I noticed that they are all over the place, in play at the tables. At the tables I have also found a New Years 1995 at RIO, Blue Man at Luxor, Grand Opening at Orleans and Aladdin, Poker Tournement 1,2 and 4 at Orleans. Y2K at GN, RIO, and Orleans and an Anniversary at GN.