For the most part I don't collect LE's so its not really important to me.

My theory for the high price of the Hooters chips is that the First two months chips were released when the casino was busier than it ever will be again . . . That is the Grand Opening of the casino (just days before Superbowl Sunday) A lot of these chips walked in the hands of people outside of the hobby. I believe that the chips could not be purchased at the cage they were put into play on the tables further spreading the chips among hooters patrons who weren't necessarily part of the hobby.

This created a scarcity of the January and February chips which resulted in market prices among the hobby going up (that pesky supply and demand thing).

Now people who weren't in the hobby including employees of the casino now see that these things can be sold on Ebay for a substantial profit. Now when the March chip comes out there isn't the big crowds that they had for opening (though I'm sure the combination of ST. Patrick's Day and the NCAA tournament brought in more people then they would have had just one week earlier). But now you have a bunch of people who are going to try to get the chip solely because they saw how much the chips sold for on Ebay the previous month, This keeps large numbers of these chips from getting into the hands of the dealers and collectors and once again the supply/demand thing drives the prices up and there is the self fulfilling prophecy.