I recently returned from a 7 year absense in the chip hobby and was so excited I paid my 7 years of back dues AND the $300 to be a life member. What turned me off to the hobby back in 1997 was the greedy, do anything, tell any lie, step on anyone to get a chip ethics of a few sellers! I let it get to me and I wish I hadn't. At the end of this long absense I decided to call someone who titles himself the "King of Chips" to have him bring over only RARE chips because I wanted to specialize in R-9 and better chips. I relied completely on his ethics because he is a memeber of the club and trusted the fact that his 3 ebay names showed only minor negative feedback. I spent over $7000 that night on only about 15 chips and was told that these chips were very "RARE". At the time, Ebay had not separated the collectible chips from all the other debris that was selling under chips so it was very difficult to try to find comparable selling chips. After realizing that searching was going to be a difficult process, I decided to hunker down and spend some time searching ebay. To my dismay I began finding the same chips that I was sold, in multiples on ebay and selling for about 1/3 of what I had paid. I then knew then that I had been had. I actually had put another $14,000 worth of chips on hold for later payment with the self titled "King of Chips" but decided to cancel the sale after realizing that those chips were not RARE nor valued anywhere near the price that they were offered to me at. I have since sold all those chips for about 1/3 of what I paid and spent a very large sum (six figures) on R-9, R-10 and unique chips with several good sellers both on and off ebay. I now have the collection that I only wish I could of afforded back in 1997.

Here is my question: Wouldn't you think that a club member and seller on ebay has the ethical duty to be honest and fair in all dealings, even those that are not done in front of others? I now realize that the hobby had changed greatly in my 7 year absense, mostly adding 0's to chip prices, but there are still sellers that can sense blood in the water and will do anything to sell a chip. And in closing, I have asked sellers to end their auctions early and have been asked 100's of times my self. My opinion is that until the auction ends, and I am sure contract law will show this, the item being auctioned is owned by the seller and ebay lets any seller end an auction early if the seller so desires. Thanks for the long read and don't trust a wolf in sheeps clothing.