Questions about chip costs, etc. have come up from time to time on the BB.
So here's some interesting facts from the Gaming Partners International (GPI) annual report.
As most will know, GPI is a publicly traded company, so it issues a 10-K annual report on its results for the year (2011).

History: GPI was formed by the 2002 merger of Paul-Son Gaming (founded 1963) and Bourgogne et Grasset (B&G, founded 1923). The Bud Jones Company also combined into the current GPI.

Financial: GPI reports annual revenues for 2011 of $61,084,000, of which $41,228,000 were chip sales (or 67% of total from chip sales). They also sell dice, cards, casino furniture, layouts and related items.

They classify their chips as "American style" and "European style" (Jetons & Plaques), with more $ sales from American ($23.3 million) vs. European style ($17.9 million).

Cost per chip: The reports lists a range of 75 cents to $5 per chip for American chips, plus an extra $1.20 to $2.00 for RFID imbedded chips. European jetons & plaques run from $3 to $5 per jeton and $6 to $20 per plaque.

My comments -below:

Price variance depends on features (hot stamped at the low end, up to inserts/inlays/security features, etc. at the higher end.

If you assume an average cost of $2.50 per American & $5 per European style (just my guess... not divulged in the report), that's about 9 million American chips and 3.5 million European jetons/plaques made in 2011, for a grand total of over 12 million made!

Getting really speculative, let's assume that each of 1000+ collectors in the club added 1 box (100 chips) of these 2011-made chips to his/her collection. That includes cash values, NCV's, roulettes, etc. made by one of the GPI brands. That's approx. 100,000 chips, or about 1% of GPI's 2011 production. Even if an extra 1-2% of chips "walk" with non-club and casual collectors, the vast majority of chips are in the hands of casinos, doing what they were made to do. For this reason, I see chip collecting as akin to the coin or stamp collecting model, not the sports cards or beanie-babies collecting model.