Terrence...

With all due respect, I believe you are missing what is probably the most important point... the reason that eBay exists. AVAILABILITY. People buy chips on eBay because they're THERE. They don't have access to dealers' binders on a daily basis, but they do have access to eBay. And, of course, the converse is true as well. People SELL on eBay because there are buyers there.

I will grant you that for the most part eBay sales take place at a lower level than book values. I will also say that most dealer sales at shows take place at lower than book values as well. It’s been my experience that most dealers will have chips marked within the range of book values and will “discuss” the final sale price if encouraged to. Depends on the dealer, the chip, the inventory, and probably lots of other factors.

Let’s discuss “book” value for a moment, though. I just took a look through your website (which I feel is very well designed) and picked out a chip that I own… the $100 King 8. Now the “book” value, per my TCR #8 (again, my TCR #9 and C&W are in my office) is from $150 to $174 and you have it priced at $199 on your website. What would you say is the real “value” of this chip?

What if you knew that I have records of close to 50 sBay sales (it’s a VERY common chip there) over the past couple of years, that show that the average sale price of this chip was about $35. And, if you know this chip, you’ll know that it’s one of those where just about all of the specimens are in similar condition (in this case, close to new condition). With this knowledge, do you feel that you could sell one of these out of your binder at a show for “book” value? The answer, of course, is that maybe you can… but not to those who participate on eBay, which is a LOT of the chip-buying community.

The gist of this is that on eBay, chips sell. In a dealer’s binder, a chip marked at “book” value might remain in that binder for 10 years. It’s merely a matter of motivation, inspiration, or whatever forces act on sellers. And, above all, let’s not forget that even at shows, dealers are competing with each other for sales on all but the rarest chips. Again, motivation is the factor, and reading a seller’s motivation is, to me, an essential element in buying chips (and conversely, reading a buyer’s motivation is essential in selling).

I can tell from your price structure on your website, for instance, that you are about as far from being a motivated seller as is possible. You have some chips price at 10 times their current market value or more. All well and good… if I could get your prices, I’d sell my entire collection and start over!

On a different note, I’d also like to address your eBay vs Convention question. Archie posted above about Jim Steffner’s eBay sale from a few years ago, and although it’s not my place to comment on the sale one way or another, it did get me thinking about how convention AUCTION sales (which should be comparable to dealers’ bourse sales since the audience and wallets are the very same) would compare to eBay sales. Here are a few notes on that:

At the 2003 club auction a $1 Dunes Sultan in nice condition went for $100. On eBay, this chip invariably goes in the $150 to $250 range.

Another Dunes, the $25,000 baccarat, went for $225 at the 2003 auction. The eBay auctions immediately preceding and succeeding the club auction (by 2-3 weeks each) went for $255 and $255.

At the 2002 club auction a Cal Neva Lodge $5 (N7671) sold for $70. I have about 15 eBay sales tracked and nothing was even close to that low. The last eBay sale on this one happened to be one of mine at $156.

At this year’s auction, a Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn N4126 in good condition sold for $125. The previous week, one in very poor condition sold on eBay for $179.

On the Copa Lounge $5, I have records of 4 sales. The two club auction sales were at $425 and $555 (2002 and 2003 auctions), and the two eBay sales went for $721 and $635.

And these are only a few of what I’ve found… just going forward through the “D”s on my auction list, I find more examples of this than you can shake a stick at. Now, I wouldn’t make the sweeping generalization that chips do better on eBay than at shows, but I think that the hard facts show that you can’t make the generalization that chips will sell higher at shows, either. As James C pointed out in a recent eBay post, he seems REALLY happy with the levels of his eBay sales, and as you know, he has as many chips to sell out of his binders as anyone.

You may indeed find that many people feel that they are getting better prices selling out of their binders at shows than on eBay. I suspect that if you were to pose the question of where they are making more money, the answer would be very different.