Even though your example is out of my league, if I see a Reserve on a chip, I usually just take a pass. Some people go fishing for values, or set the reserve at book, so it's a waste of time.

Why not just start the auction at the least the seller would take, and see what hapens from there. If they don't want to sell it, then why is it up on eBay?

Starting at $1.00 means a 30c fee from eBay to test the waters, because it won't sell. Kind of using the bidders to see what a chip might be worth?

Why a $500 chip only got a $25 bid might be a sign that the chip isn't $500 or just that there's no interest from deep pockts, in this particular chip. They already have it, can find it for less, the value has gone down, or it just wasn't seen...

Heck I had $5 chips for $6 with shipping included and didn't get bids on some of them. Go figure.
One person cleaned up and bought almost all of them. Great for both of us, because that means I save on shipping.