... Archie's service (or any other, for AC or anywhere else), though I was a subscriber to Archie's service a few years ago (stopped when I dropped out of the hobby for awhile).

If I was, however, I would be among those satisfied with the way in which he has tried to ameliorate an unsolvable problem. It would be unreasonable for anyone to expect him (or any other provider of a subscriber service) to obtain large quantities of special chips which are not made routinely available to the public.

While I admire the willingness of some service providers to sell difficult to obtain chips at their regular price (e.g., George Conrad's selling of the porno chips at the subscription price), I suspect that this was possible only because the provider was able to obtain enough chips to supply his entire list. [Would appreciate it if George would advise us about that.]

Obviously, if a provider cannot get enough chips to provide one to every subscriber, SOMEONE is going to be unhappy because he doesn't get one. Seems to me that Archie's solution (giving the buyers the opportunity to decide how much they want the scarce chip, rather than randomly or arbitrarily distributing them) is a most fair way to determine who gets the chips.

As for the issue of the eBay chip, I will repeat what I have said several times before. If a chip is accurately described in the auction, what minimum bid (or reserve price) is placed on it is no one's business but the seller's. And what bid anyone actually makes is no one's business but the bidder's.

It's hard for me to see how Archie setting a price on this chip, even a high price, is inappropriate. After all, he does it for EVERY Atlantic City chip EVERY year. If, because of his knowledge and experience, he has some influence on the hobby in that respect, it is hard for me to see how that's a bad thing.

I'm Jim Reilly and that's my opinion. ----- jim o\-S