Pretty much standard antiques and collecting situation.

There is no weakness in the chip market, even common chips are still attractive to many people and new collectors. Common chips, high production LE's and well known chips should not be demanding inflated prices. They are not.

Uncommon and harder to find chips are still bringing a premium price for sellers and in demand by collectors with interest in that area.

Your points are well made. People are not selling off their less common chips and people looking for them, can't always find what they want or need, without some searching or waiting.

Taking the hypothetical, which is a generalization and not absolute, that chips often sell for half of book values. Some do, if they are easy to find, some don't because they are harder to find.

I'd say the easiest proof that values for R-5 and harder to find chips, is still increasing. Simple enough, if the demand is higher than the supply, the price someone will pay is going to go up.

Likewise, harder to find chips will hold value in the long run as well. (for those who believe there's some investment in chips) I collect for fun. If I can buy and sell some chips, so I can support my interest in more chips, fine. But I have no illusion or intention or selling my collection or making a profit from "my collection".

Slow is one thing, no interest is another. There are still finds and discoveries. I was amazed years ago that some of the chip hunters could find these old chips. Now it seems like even more are being discovered. So the number of chips to buy are ever increasing. How many must have chips can anyone obtain at a time. Or maybe I should say, slow means people are continuing to collect, new finds and wanted chips for their collection. Stagnant would be something different.

As you put it, there are more people asking for harder to find chips than there are selling them. That speaks for itself. Chips are still fun and continue to be interesting and collectible.