I totally agree. I think common chips have just lost their resale value. If you buy a chip over face, you are going to lose money when trying to sell it. BUT, I don't think it is such a problem. I don't believe anyone should be buying chips for investment purposes. I just don't see that being profitable in the long run. If you abandon the idea of making a profit later on, you should feel fine paying a few bucks more for the convenience of ease of adding chips to your collection.

My discussion above was for common chips, but I think it also applies to obsoletes. I would be interested to know if values of old Las Vegas chips are also feeling the pinch of dropping prices.