Speaking solely about A.C. chips and values ... I could write a book; but it would be boring reading to most!

Years ago it was very hard sometimes for new issue dealers to aquire enough chips to satisfy the demand by collectors with purchase limits being placed on new LE chips being issued by casino policy that varied from house to house. Speaking first hand, if one didn't come to the casino new issue release on the prescribed un-announced release date with plenty of extra help from friends and relatives, or help other chippers in attendance, when there was a line of chip buyers that often began building an hour before the chip release ... often the entire issue was sold out in 15 minutes to a half-hour after the sale began. Remember, the A.C. casinos rarely advertised a chip release date in advance. The only way chippers found out about these chip releases (usually during mid-week) was through word of mouth and posts on thechipboard. Most of the time it was a casino employee who also happened to be a club member who found out when the chips were being released and he spread the word.

I (and many other veteran chippers) remember when Bob Mera was alive during the Royal Flush issues at Trump Castle, when everybody would pool their money and gave it to Bob Mera to make the purchase and he would bring the racks of purchased chips out to the parking garage where everyone was waiting to divy up the chips because the casino didn't want lines of chip collectors on the casino floor.

During the restaurant chip releases at Tropicana where you were only allowed to purchase five chips per person, I was offering $5 each to waiting rolling chair operators to leave their chairs on the Boardwalk and make a purchase inside of five chips on the designated roulette table.

My "brother" Bob (in last name only) often came down from Freehold, NJ to many new issue releases at Trump Plaza where he joined Brenda and me on the chip line. Besides the travel expenses involved, it also cost me lunch or dinner. Of course, these expenses were passed on to my subscribers at the time, who were very happy to get the chips. Unfortunately, those days are gone and today's chippers are getting great deals when they are able to purchase LE's for only $1 over face value (or less). Too many investors at the time thought they were going to make a killing on buying up LE chips causing immediate sell-outs ... only to discover after they had all these chips in hand and they had no place to go with them and began turning them back into the cage for face value. I don't think the casino brass liked this method of doing business with chip collectors. Very few LE chips are issued in A.C. anymore.