When people are new to any hobby, they don't know what to expect, who to trust, how to find out information they need to make intelligent decisions. When people are new to this board, most don't even give their full real names, with real e-mail addresses. They don't know if they should. By the same logic, I would expect a newbie chip collector who makes what could be a significant find to proceed cautiously. She or he may not know why people care about the numbers, whether interested persons will be fair, etc. She or he wouldn't even know what is customary in terms of revealing such information. Others want to know those numbers for many reasons, including valuing the chips. I can understand your caution. It is also clear to me that the numbers of chips you found are in that gray area where you wouldn't know if they had to be disclosed so as not to be deceitful. So far, you have seemed to be totally above board about everything, especially for someone who is treading on new ground.

So you know, hoarding large amounts of chips that are thought to be rare and selling them one at a time at the current price without disclosing the discovery of new chips is thought to be unethical by many, if not most, of the chippers on this board. I don't think that is what you were doing.

Michael Siskin