Archie,

My comments aren't directed at you. I understand your plight (although in the realm of plights being forced to sell chips at large profits is hardly among the worst of all possible plights). You can only get a certain number of these chips and you have more customers than chips (of course other new issue services don't then turn the short supply into a bidding war among subscribers). But when I say don't buy them, I don't only mean you, I mean your customers as well.

I buy virtually no LE's for myself anymore (although an offline chipper I buy for was shut of the $25 he is happy to be able to get all the other new releases at a reasonable price thanks to Scott Harmon). I make an occasional LE purchase but I have come to feel that these "chips" which for the most part are not intended to be used in gambling may as well be those little spoons they sell in the gift shop.

Does that mean that others shouldn't collect LE's? No. Each collector will have different tastes, some people even actually collect those spoons.

But if you choose to collect them you need to remember that is a choice you made. If you don't like them, or the way they are released you are free to stop collecting them. People keep talking as if they are compelled to purchase these chips. And it is the collectors who pay these high premiums who fuel one of the problems you mention in your newsletter . . . Non-Collector investors purchasing the chips to turn over a quick profit (Your newsletter mentioned employees on line who were only purchasing the $25's).

>>As for your comparison to TY and beanie babies. I don't think the rise or fall of Trump Marina Casinos is dependent upon their LE chip program as children's toys are to TY.

I didn't suggest any such thing. I merely suggested that the marketing strategy being employed here and at the HR is based upon the same principle as TY's marketing of beanie of babies. . . Lets make a few that go up in price so that we can sell future releases to speculators. This is used in other collectibles as well. Do you have a better theory as to why these casinos are doing this?