"As an example look at A/C LE's. No longer are most casino's happy with turning out $5 chips but many are now cranking out $10's $20's $25's and $100's. In the end, this might be the straw that broke the Camels back' ... Bob Touts

Maybe ... to an extent Bob.... then again, maybe not.

I personally think some of this recent activity has to do with providing collectors with what they want, plus the evolvement of the hobby. Bob, it's only been since 1992 when LE's in A.C. were introduced into the hobby by Caesars.... and a whole bunch of them at that! 15,000 David Copperfield chips were issued. 100,000 Caesars blackheads. Resorts issued 60,000 of their 15th Anniversary chip. Bally's Grand produced 20,000 New Year chips for 1993 and 10,000 Chinese New Year chips the same year! The infamous Donald & Marla chip that lots of folks think are very valuable .... 15,000 of them were issued!! Caesars Planet Hollywood chips ... they made 25,000 of them! When was the last LE issued by Caesars? Today, casino suits and chip collectors think of 1000 nickel chips as being too many because they don't sell out the day they are issued. Years ago, LE's stayed on the tables for months ... and were played!

Consider this fact; Playboy Casino, a very upscale property at the time, only had $1 slot tokens. That's right. Nothing higher than a $1 slot machine ... even on their high-roller 3rd floor. The Atlantis later on; the same thing, nnothing higher than $1 machines. If Playboy was still open today, I've always wondered what neat LE chips would they have issued?

Businesses, in general, try to give the customer what they want. Now there is a big clamor for these LE's with low production numbers (100 $25 chips don't go very far). Have you noticed the bids these LE's are getting on ebay? It's a result of collector demand. Showboat is going to do a $100 New Year chip of which only 60 are being made and 200 quarters, so I've heard unofficially. Do you think that folks are going to line up for this one ... even though they don't collect $100 chips? You bet they will!!

Collectors comment about too many chips being made one day ... and too little chips being made the following day. I've come to realize that it's not the collector the casinos are after when they issue these very limited issues. The past two releases in A.C. have demonstrated that fact clearly. The chip programs at Trump Marina and now at Taj Mahal are nothing more than another marketing tool to get PEOPLE onto the property. During the 7 hour wait for the 150th Anniversary chips to be released at Trump Marina, what did a lot of those people do while they were waiting? Many of whom I've never seen before. They played the slots (like your wife and my wife did) and played table games (like my brother Bob and many others did). So in the casino's eyes, the promotion was a big success ... not because the chips sold out ... but because LOTS of new faces were gambling instead of showing up a half-hour before a routine chip release and leaving.

At Taj Mahal this past weekend, some collectors opted to go stand in line at Taj for the LE quarters instead of attending Trump Plaza's $5 chip release two hours earlier. I'm sure many of them gambled at Taj while they were waiting.

How many non-collectors walking through a casino see the long lines of people purchasing quantities of chips off a dead roulette table and get on the end of the line so they don't miss out on what they perceive as an "opportunity"? These are the collectors of tomorrow after they have been bitten by the collecting bug and now have a severe case of chip fever.

We harvest what we sow. Many of today's collectors got into the hobby because of LE's ... like a moth drawn to a flame. They would not have begun collecting chips if they were just limited to regular table chips in most cases. As their collecting experience grows, so does their appetite for some of the scarcer issues .... including obsolete rack chips, shoe chips, tournament chips, roulette chips, etc. Many collectors are now purchasing quantities of chips they have no idea what they are going to do with them after they get them. How many times can you put the same chip up for sale on ebay? Some speculators are just holding the chips for awhile and turn them into the cage sometime down the road when they need the money ... or need money to purchase the next LE's that are being released. Eventually, these chips that have been turned back into the cage will get destroyed by the casino's periodic destruction programs ... making the availability of the total numbers issued even less than originally thought.

How many times in the past have you heard a collector lament, "I wish I was collecting back then"? I think the same thing is true today. Hopefully, collectors coming into the hobby ten years from now may be wishing they were collecting in the late '90's - early 2000's.

The sky is not falling. Chip production numbers are steadily falling... while the prices on some are escalating. There will not be as many chips available to tomorrow's collectors as many folks think there are (in my opinion). On the other hand, there will always be some who are willing to unload their chips at rock bottom prices when collecting interest wanes, or unforseen developments arise, or to undercut the competition ... and that's the way the market works.

What's the line that famous Russian comic always used?