Mike - You cannot go by those guides, other than to assume they drastically mark up the price of the chip. To get a more realistic value for a chip I'd suggest looking on eBay. One of those $1 Golden Nugget chips sold last month for $22.50 (only 1 bid, so the seller found someone not too knowledgeable about chip prices - good for him). Another went unbid with a $19.00 starting price. A third sold for $15.59 with 2 bids. In March one sold for $9.27 with 10 bids, and another sold for $9.95.

Yes, condition matters, but for the most part those $1 Golden Nugget chips (with the scroll mold) are well over valued in the guides.