~~~ considering everything you've mentioned; such as number of chips and your limitation regarding time.

I would work with the California dealer who offered to pay above face for the 99% portion of the collection you mentioned.

Why?

A simple search on this message board will yield sales proposals for Limited Edition chips and common house chips where the sller is offering those chips at face or below face.

Three thousand chips will consume lots of time and effort selling one at a time; even if sold in groupings of 10 or 20 pieces... and that's not even considering that the possibility of most collectors here already having most of what your friend collected.

Best of luck...