Hi everybody, I'm Michael Par, the dealer who labeled the Cal Games Crest & Seal chip as Rare in an eBay auction. It appears Dave rushed in to defend me since I was unaware my business practices were being discussed in a public forum.

For some background, I've been selling antique chips on eBay for over two years now, and have about 1300 positive feedback comments, and only one negative (from a woman who bought a childrens book, thanked me profusely, then negged me and 23 other sellers four months later). My net rating is currently 853, because I have so many repeat customers. I'm pretty sure I do the highest volume of antique chip sales on the Internet, if not in terms of dollars, certainly in terms of numbers of lots of antique chips I ship. About half of my total sales are made direct to folks who I get started in the hobby via my eBay auctions, sell them a Dale Seymour book, and fill in the most basic chips by selling to them directly. I focus on antique chips, and only dabble in casino chips and illegals as they come my way.

I am surprised that the operator of this board allows specific auctions to be discussed without the parties in question being made aware of the discussion, but to each his own. I'm less concerned that David's initial post labels this transaction as ethically questionable, as I am that he's essentially called one of my customers a "sucker". I wish he had emailed me directly with his concerns.

I use the term "rare" in the context of eBay auctions, not in the same context that elitist collectors would. I have no idea how many of these chips exist, and I don't really care. When I listed my auction I had no idea that others have listed this chip in the past, or would soon list singles and/or multiples. The fact that my friend Ralph Strandwold immediately emailed me when he learned I had acquired a lot of these chips and asked me to set one of these aside for him also lead me to believe the chips were relatively rare.

As far as I know, my offering was a first for my customers, which justifies the use of the adjective "rare" in my humble opinion.

Most of my customers do not spend hours searching for chips on eBay, and never attend a show. They do not belong to chip collecting clubs, nor do they swap emails and phone calls to discuss chips with their fellow collectors. They just bookmark my auctions and check a few times a week to see if there's anything new I'm offering, and the word "rare" makes the chip stand out as a new offering. Believe me, my customers who have never seen this chip before will consider it "rare", and they won't care if a couple hundred exist in the world, or a couple of million. All they know is they don't have one, it's in the Seymour book, and it's being offered by a dealer they know and trust, rather then a stranger. They are all adults, and can decide for themselves if $7.99 is too much to bid.

These customers would never buy a lot of 10 of these chips, they do not buy to trade or resell, they only want one for their collection. They would rather pay $8.00 for one chip than $25.00 for 10 chips. They also are not stupid, and if Mr. Benedict is offering the same chip for $2.61 and they manage to find his auction, they might well buy one from him. Or they may not, preferring to pay a few dollars more to deal with someone they know and trust, who can combine the chip with others in one envelope to save on postage, or let them accumulate auction wins for weeks and weeks before paying to save even more postage.

If $7.99 for a nice antique Crest and Seal amounts to a "sucker" deal in your eyes, I assure you it does not in the eyes of my bidders. If you think I make a habit of misleading my customers by falsly labeling the rarity or scarcity of the items I sell, by all means look at my auction list. If you think the $5.00 or so I will make on this single chip auction is excessive, fine, but considering that I bring dozens of new collectors into our hobby each month, and that I lose money about as often as I make money on these deals, I'll sleep well tonight.