A stranger appears in our quaint little community unaware of some of our common conventions and as events progress it becomes evident that he is unobservant of other things that are valued hereabouts. He is initially met with a straight forward question and baffled by a technical semantics observation. In a roundabout way the stranger is supplied with help in his quest for information. Unfortunately Jason(the only person posting in the thread with no last name apparently) has been victimized by a couple of circumstances, neither of which he controls.

• First circumstance:

Other strangers. Remember the gal with the La Rue chips? Would NOT answer the simplest of questions concerning rarity. Yes, there's that word. Let's be honest friends, when you're talking about $$ certain words do have meaning. The La Rue seller obviously was manipulating the term rarity to her own gain.

Remember the guy with the chips from the MGM fire. Claimed that his buddy, a security guard at MGM, rescued these chips during the fire. When it was pointed out that these were generic poker chips and that we realized he belived the fish tale, there were exactly a million reasons that these chips were never at the place. "Gaak! You're all doinked in the head!" he exclaimed, "I came here for an ego stroke, not this!"

• Second Circumstance

The Axe-Grinders. Like organ-grinders with a monkey on a tether, these grinders are whetting their blades to further whittle the chips on their shoulders. Espying posts by their targets, they add yet another cynical vent to the proceedings. The volumn of these bleats belies the sad little value their other posts bring the community and doesn't really disguise the mock assistance to strangers they pretend to care for.

Here's Jason's auction link: http://cgi.ebay.com/Colonial-Club-set-of-three-Illegal-gambling-poker-chips_W0QQitemZ190087011423QQihZ009QQcategoryZ63756QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Seems like a decent opportunity. Probably not the presentation a lot of us would make and I think as Jason learns more about these chips (his mission here today!) this page could become more streamlined and handsome!