For those that are not familiar with ChipTalk.net, I suggest you pay them a visit before drawing any conclusions about them based on comments from others.

Painting all of their members with a broad brush is inappropriate and is akin to someone calling all those who use thechipboard.com of being of one mind.

Quite obviously, the contrary is the case.

Anyway, just as there name implies, they are at http://www.chiptalk.net

One of the many things that some of the members do there is try to organize what are called Group Buys. A while back, member Roland Schoff (also a participant at ChipTalk) was trying to drum up interest in the design and manufacture of a "Commemorative Casino Chip Set".

He asked for suggestions from readers, some of whom wanted dead on duplicates of existing, live action casino chips, to those who wanted to "commemorate" casinos of the past (Sands, Dunes, etc.).

At one point a ChipTalk member suggested getting scans from me (of a long gone casino) I responded as follows:

"I am a collector of casino memorabilia including chips and it saddens me, every day, to see bogus material show up on eBay being represented as real casino chips. Within collector circles these chips are referred to as Fantasy Chip and regardless of the motives or intent of the makers, these chips will one day, in the future, enter the collectibles marketplace. There will be a never ending supply of unscrupulous sellers, more than willing to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers for those chips that will reflect casino names and icons of the real things.

As some of you know, I am on-line quite a bit and I can tell you I get emails from many people asking if they overpaid for a chip or if they should bid on a chip being offered on eBay. I sometimes get email and even letters from service industry people wanting to know if a chip that was left as a tip has value. Some of these letters have made me cry!

I get angry when I see the casino "tribute" chips put out by Gamblers General Store being sold on eBay as real casino chips or hyped as being such, without proclaiming that they are modern-day chips bought for about a buck retail!

I am also a big believer in copyright infringement, whether the holder enforces their rights or not. Names like the Sands, the Dunes, etc. are all copyrighted and I would never be so unethical as to infringe on that right, just as I would expect all others to honor any copyrighted (trade marked) intelectual property of mine, whether I was looking or not.

So, bottom line, I am against this, but I am not the kind of person who imposes my belief system onto others.

Thank you for reading.

Respectfully,

Jim Follis, aka: Gaming Ore"

My message was politely rebuffed and the activity continued to the point of development as pointed out to us (here on thechipboard) by Past President, Mr. Archie Black, (in a previous thread) and several people are now discussing.

Which brings me to my point. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone wants produce material as being discussed in the Condado Beach/Coconut Beach controversy, except for the money!

The money, the money, the money!

So I ask, if there was no profit in it, would it be done?

I dare say NO!

IMHO, it's all about greed!

Jim Follis