There are currently 15 lots of James Bond chips being offered on eBay, most by Bob Mera at reasonable prices. Three other lots, however, make exaggerated to outlandish claims (and one of those has once again attracted very high bids).

I sent the following email to the seller of the lot with the most egregious description (scoots72@aol.com, eBay lot # 43519681):

Dear Scoots -- Your eBay lot is described as follows:

> Be the coolest guy at the card table with your Original Set of Poker Chips used in
> the 007 Movies. Included with 2 Independent Certificates of Authenticity - From the
> Williams Collection. Set of 6 USED, FILMED Poker Chips from the James Bond 007 movie:
> A License to Kill... If you saw the saw the poker game then you saw these chips. Set
> includes a $1, $5, $25, $100, $500, and a VERY RARE $1000 chip assessed at over $200
> alone. Credit cards welcome. Dealer inquiries invited.
>
> On 11/22/98 at 18:32:46 PDT, seller added the following information:
> Just learned that the Williams Collection Chips pictured here have been
> Authenticated by Christie's of Beverly Hills.

I have a few questions about these chips:

1) By whom are the 2 independent Certificates of Authenticity issued
and what do they say?
2) Who has "assessed" the $1000 chip at "over $200"?
3) What is the Williams collection?

You should know that there are currently 15 lots of James Bond chips
being offered on eBay, at prices as low as $7.20 for the set of six,
$6.00 for the set of five (without the $1000 chip). Also, these chips
are available in unlimited quantities (including the $1000 chip)
directly from the manufacturer (Paul-Son Gaming of Las Vegas) for 60
cents each. The original production run of these chips WAS made for use
in the movie, but extensive research by chip collectors has failed to
find any evidence that they actually were. If you saw the movie, you
did NOT see these chips; they never appear on screen. The original
chips were returned to Paul-Son after the movie was released (and the
movie failed to give screen credit for the chips, as had been agreed).
Some chips are seen in the opening scene -- they are not these chips.

Some sellers have claimed to have obtained chips from the original
production run which were supposedly pulled out by movie people before
they were returned to Paul-Son. However, no documentary proof of any
such occurrence has ever been offered by any seller I have contacted.
Furthermore, Paul-Son has continued to produce them by the thousands
(all six denominations) and the more recently produced chips are exactly
the same as and indistinguishable from the original production run.

----- jim o\-S