You responded with a very simple and well thought out statement. However, You missed my entire point which flew right over your head. Did you read and understand where I said and implied “guides” WERE an important informational reference?

All of your hypothetical (I know you will say they are real and actual) measurements of value are great in theory. But that is all they are, theory. The practical matter is; any guide that is updated on a yearly or other irregular basis does not take into account all transactions that may have occurred. Nor does it take into account recent " qantity finds". And of course you understand many private transactions go unrecorded.

If your assumption is guide values reflect current and or past transactions, so then, if that is the case, why are chips on eBay selling for far below “guide value”?

Perhaps you should query Tim Wandke about his recent success selling his excess chips at anywhere close to guide value. I know the chips I purchased from him were far below listed guide values.

Have you ever gone to a chip show and asked a "dealer" how much they are asking for a chip they may have for sale? If it's unmarked, they immediately head for some price guide and quote a price. In most cases they have no idea how many of those same chips are in the room and their respective offering prices. They just quote a number that was published and is generally outdated once the book was finally published.

Lastly, I think even you would have to admit that chip prices have come down "Appreciably" since the last printing of Campiglia and Wells. Do you think if a new 5th edition with the current market decline was published it would sell the same number of copies as the 4th edition sold with higher prices?

There is an inherent conflict of interest when one writes a price guide and at the same time buys and sells chips for their own account. That was my original point which you did not either understand nor were you willing to accept.

By the way, if you don’t think "Cash is King" and it Speaks with Authority, you also don't understand finance. Perhaps you should review some of Warren Buffets' recent use of his King Cash Hoard and the opportunities he was able to take advantage of having all that cash within the last year.