I find myself sitting at the high stakes poker table.

In an article that I wrote for the CC>CC magazine last year (it never got published because I had a computer crash and lost a lot of stuff), titled "Australia and New Zealand as a collecting specialty ", I stated that one of the main reasons for choosing Australia was that I considered it to be 'doable'.

What I meant by 'doable' was that most of the chips were fairly easily obtainable, and that the prices were in the range where an average collector could purchase them without a second mortgage on the house. Unlike Nevada/Las Vegas collecting, where there are several chips that you need to sell several houses to buy.

At that time (a short 18 months ago) I had never seen any Aussie chip draw more than $20 on ebay. I guessed that if the chips were available, one could purchase all of Australia and New Zealand for $4,000-5,000.

Just minutes ago, a duplicate of a $.50 chip, that I paid $3-4 for a few months ago, sold on ebay for $49.50. And the $1.00 chip that I bid $25 on(ebay item #330109014201), sold for $56.55.

Suddenly, I no longer consider A&NZ to be doable for an average Joe who is just beginning to collect. My current guesstimate of the purchase price for all the chips of Australia and New Zealand is $15,000-20,000.

I feel like I came in to play the nickel slots, and here I am, seated at the high limit (high ante) poker table.

On the one hand I suppose that I should be happy that the value of those chips that I have collected has tripled. But collecting has never been about profit or investment for me. On the other hand, I fear that obtaining the balance of the chips needed to complete my collection may be beyond what I can afford.

For a while I thought that the A&NZ chip list that I created (with the able assistance of John Kallman) was having an effect on the market. But then I talked to several of the more enthusiastic Aussie collectors (the ones paying the big prices), only to find out that they were totally unaware of the A&NZ chip list. It seems that Australian chip collecting, by Australian collectors, has just taken hold with no input from me.

So, here I sit at the high limit table, debating weather I want to put that big ante on the table for the next hand.