I'm not a high volume chip collector, but of the chips I have (all older obsoletes), I have only paid as much as low CR value once. People who buy a lot of their chips at book values are generally unaware of the market for a chip or simply do not care. I bought a lottery ticket on the way to work, so hopefully I can join the later group!

In this hobby a lot of the inventory is concentrated into too few hands, which can lead to dealers asking unreasonable prices for chips. Maybe they live for the negotiation. I just walk away from their table. I don't figure that I am going to get chip marked at 3x the market price down a price that I would buy it at.

You can find some good deals on eBay, but upwards of a thousand buyers are looking at the listings. This is a more representative market than the one-off sale at a chip show. Mark Sutton has been trying to unload his collection at High CR - 20% for quite some time. What does that say about CR value?

On the flip side the CR value can be too low for better chips. I would be interested hearing from someone who is also a coin collector on how the two hobbies compare.