Like others have said trading chip for chip is good. But that is only true for current chips. After a while you will probably get into obsolete chips and then what do you do? Most people trade value for value. I don't find very many people who want to trade five $1 chips for a $5 chip since the value of a $5 chip is $7-8 and the $1 chips are about $3 each. When you have enough chips to make up a trade/sale list it is a lot easier to assign a value to each chip. If you keep the value realistic then you will be able to sell the chips for that much cash or trade for other chips at that value. The only caveat is to watch out for those few who assign unreasonably high values to their chips. If you both have the same chip on your lists and his is $25 and yours is $10 then one price is not realistic. But there are very few people who hang around here who are out to take advantage of you in a trade. And when they do the word gets around quickly.