The drop in prices began during the global banking crisis. As we went into recession, many collectors who were on fixed income or lost substantial amounts of their investments values, sold of their collections. Increasingly, they sold them at lower and lower prices, basically in a panic. Unfortunately, others took these prices as the new norm and lowered their prices until the low prices became expected. At the same time, many collectors died or became too ill to enjoy their collections. Many large collections flooded the market, while fewer people were entering the hobby, further forcing prices down. There is a belief that younger generations are not interested in collecting, as the drop in collectors is affecting most hobbies, so the numbers of collectors has not bounced back with the increased economy. Still, some chips have held their value, especially higher value Las Vegas chips (this may not be true of the highest levels). As people got scared off, many sold off secondary collections, so many of the more niche areas lost large numbers of collectors, bring down prices. Finally, limited edition chips, which brought in large numbers of casual collectors, seems to have become much less common. Less collectors, less demand, so lower prices. Massively increased postage has curtailed a lot of trading, which could have had an effect on values indirectly, and other factors have probably reduced the demand for many chips as well.

I hope this helped.

Michael Siskin