There was an eBay auction that ended on May 20th that was a lot of 2,540 Vineyard chips of various denominations. The auction was conducted by as seller called "Vontar5" and the auction made it up to $18,151 with the reserve not being met --- that's about $7.15 per chip.

The high bidder was someone named "30wildcherries". Although I can't say for sure, I would guess that this is a case of the seller attempting to get the price up into the stratosphere either using an alternate eBay name or having friends bid. There can be no rational reason for the seller to have a reserve higher than the above price other than to make a reputation for his chips and have friends bid them up to that level.

The deception surrounding these chips has been going on for quite a while. There was a thread on the Club board which started in late 2003 that deals with these chips, which included this ludicrous statement by the fellow who presumably owns unknown hundreds of racks of these chips:

"The Vineyard Full graphics chip is one of the rarest, most sought after chips within chip collecting circles. They average anwhere between $75-$200 per chip, however most people are unwilling to sell at the moment as their value is expected to rise quite a bit due to the recent Paulson take over."

Seems to me that this scam has been gestating for quite a while and that there have been many buyers who have been burned. There is nothing more important than educating yourself before buying. If you don't know... ASK!