Chuck S. posted the following;
"I am one the the NIS providers who did not GRUB their customers (there are a couple of others also) that I sent Friday the 13th chips to. I did pay 3 people to stand in line for me and passed this on to my customers...Of which I made nothing on those 24 chips."

I can sympathize and relate to Chuck's plight. I too have paid folks to stand in line for me on occassion ... when literally dozens of A.C. boardwalk rolling chair operators (not all at the same time) have purchased chips in the past on my behalf at Tropicana's rigidly enforced distribution policy of 5 chips per customer, as many regular A.C. chippers will testify.

I have over 100 nickel chip collectors from all over the country who are signed up for my A.C. new issues service and who depend soley upon me to satisfy their thirst for newly released A.C. chips. So I pay the boarwalk chair operators and yes, some homeless people and drunks, a $1 per chip premium for each chip at Trop that they are able to purchase on my behalf which I am being denied to purchase myself. I provide them with the up-front money..., they are happy to make an extra buck..., and my customers for the most part do not mind paying the extra $1 surcharge (with explanation) that I sometimes must pass along to them on L.E. Tropicana chips. On other releases at other properties in town, I have had several chipper friends graciously offer to purchase chips for me at face value after they have fulfilled their needs.

Now I know that some readers on this message board do not like to hear it ... but if it were not for the New Issues Services, like Chuck, Andy, Dave Harber, myself, and others ... including the chips for face group ... many of these hundreds of people who obtain their chips regularly from NIS providers would be in competition against each other on ebay ... driving up the chip prices even more, and getting ripped off on excessive shipping charges. Like it or not; those are the facts.

Fortunately, I have a dear close friend in Las Vegas who picks up most of the new Hard Rock issues for me (and for others as well) at face value. Some issues she gets shut out on, and I understand that. So just because there are alot of people in line purchasing multiples of these limited editions, does not necessarily mean that all of them are grubby, greedy, profit-mongers.