Terrence…

You make an interesting point that really goes much deeper than collecting casino chip, but I’ll refrain from taking this conversation out of that realm. Even though it can be shown with absolute certainty that James’ statement on page 38 of his book that "a drilled chip is generally worth 30% of what it would be if it weren't damaged" is NOT a valid generalization, you will continue to believe what it says in "the good book" (ie: the printed word). As you say… so be it. In fact, this ratio varies wildly from chip to chip… from maybe 2:1 to 20 or 30:1. Is I’ve stated, in the case of that popular Flamingo $5, the ratio is closer to 10:1.

You further state, "IMHO, can't imagine anyone that believes ebay represents 'retail prices' at any level despite the reach." This statement flies in the face of the fact than many chips sell higher in the auction market than in the so-called retail market. It doesn’t make any sense at all to say this and I don’t think that anyone who follows the chip sales market would believe this to be true. Again, as Archie pointed out, ask Jim Steffner.

"According to James, not me, high end dealers nor high end chips are not being listed. James himself, wrote in a post on this site just a few days ago that he is very disappointed that no high end chips are being listed or offered and this, despite his well publicized offers for high end chips. And he knows eeeevryone so I, again, believe him. So be it.

Even James (himself) would acknowledge that as more high end chips wind up in collections the less there are to be sold or listed at auction. James is probably referring to the lack of new finds that would fuel high-end sales. What you left out of this conversation, however, is the very point of that post that James made… that his better chips have been doing VERY WELL on eBay. Pete Porro wrote a very astute post on this very subject in response to the James’ post that you cite…

http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcb/tcb.pl?noframes;read=299113

Further down, Archie is basically saying the same thing… the higher end material is already in established collections and it ain’t coming out.

Bottom line… you certainly may buy me a drink at the convention! And you have a great holiday season as well.