You have a point, to an extent. I remember when I started on eBay. I think it was from here that I had heard of it. I started browsing chips there and eventually signed up so that I could bid on some. I lost so many auctions right off and it was discouraging. I started to learn a few quirks and strategies about bidding and things changed a little. Overall I did start to win some auctions when I started to notice how much some would sell for and how unrealistic some of my expectations were. For the run of the mill new releases and such there were usually enough quantities and sellers were selling at pretty fair prices back then that I would pick up a couple here or there. Sometimes I might spend a buck or two more than I should have or wanted but then, How bad did I want to get my collection started.

I kept at it though and built up some good relatioinships with some sellers who I found I was buying from over and over. Then I found that they would sell to me off ebay as some of them would start sending me release notices and offers. Usually for about or maybe a touch less than their eBay starts. Certainly less than getting into a bidding contest with other collectors. Some of those prices have gone up a little since and as one person mentioned earlier, especially since 9-11, priorities have put some of my chip buying asside. I do still bottom fish from time to time and will go to

http://listings.ebay.com/pool1/plistings/list/all/category898/index.html?from=R4

and select Going Going Gone or Ending Today. You can also select certain catagories along the side of the screen like Chips, Ash Trays, Dice, Tokens....

Of course, I got started before sniping became so popular. The sniping that was done then was by people sitting at their computers with dialup and 28.8 modems... Not all that swift. You would have to, sometimes, place your bid within a minute and 20 to get it in. Now with software and Broadband etc. I was astonished to find that some are sniping at 5 seconds. My best battle, which almost gave me a stroke, was while I was watching an auction. I would recycle every 10 seconds. I got to a minute and sombody had sniped me. I quickly, hands trembling, dinner ready to come back up, typed in another bid only to get sniped right away. I had one last chance and got a final bid in at about 30 seconds. With my computers speed, When the computer came back up I had won the auction. I looked at the timing on the bid history and found that my bid registered with 4 seconds left.

It seems clear that those days are gone for good.