... example, Peter, of what I'm talking about. Do you believe that seller knew what he had and that he had "faith" in the auction process? If so, you're as naive as he was uninformed. There's no way a knowledgeable seller would have offered those five chips in a single lot. In fact, a knowledgeable seller might not have offered them on eBay at all; at least not until after attempting to sell them privately here, in the club magazine or at one of the chip shows.

Now, did any of us go to the person and say, "hey, there's a better way to do this"? Not a chance. Instead, a significant number of us (myself included) attempted to manipulate the final price on the auction not only by agreeing not to bid against each other but by joining together in at least one group that I know of, the purpose of which was to artificially decrease the final bid price. Something we might call "shill non-bidding". It's certainly the other side of the same chip, anyway.

If we were all as altruistic as we claim to be when "protecting" buyers, why aren't we even the slightest bit altruistic toward the sellers? The obvious answer is, as collectors, we all want to get great chips for low prices and don't care if some uninformed seller loses out in the process.

Not claiming to be any better than anyone else here; I haven't done any more than anyone else in this regard. Just think it's something we should consider before we blast the guy on the other side of the chip. ----- jim o\-S