If it's like most hobbies that promote/promoted trading over selling, the objective is collectors BUY from non-collectors at GREAT prices (auctions, yard sales, etc.).

The second best method is to buy collections from collectors that have lost interest. Most disenchanted collectors will sell their entire collections for 50-75% of book. You keep the chips you need and then use the rest as traders.

This is how collectors grow their trading stock (initially).

Once they have their trading stock, they grow their collections through trading with other collectors.

It's really pretty easy to acquire "old" chips. Subscribe to your local antique newspaper (ours is Antique Week) and read it weekly to find out where the auctions will be held selling casino/gambling items. The one thing I do consistently is place an ad in a local newspaper. I did this with White House Easter Eggs. I did some research to find out where they were produced, placed an ad in their local paper, bought 1,200 eggs for $5,000. Kept one of each, traded for the ones I was missing and then sold the rest for a profit of nearly $20,000 (plus a complete collection of 100+ eggs). This is how many collectors grow GREAT collections. My best friend had the country's best private Apothecary collection. He had less than $100,000 in his collection and sold it after only 5 years for over $1,000,000 (1998). If he still had it today (10 years) it would have easily sold for close to $2,000,000. He used the same techniques (actually, I learned them from him) to grow his collection.