Hi Michael,

Welcome to both the club and the BB.

"My primary concern is that while most message boards have a policy that you do not discuss a person's ethics without inviting them to the board to defend themselves, this board apparently allows various forms of character assisination to go on behind one's back."

Given that this BB's existance doesn't represent any official organization, its a free forum to express thoughts, ideas and opinions. It isn't moderated. Most of the time, when an online seller is accused of misusing a word in describing an item for sale, the seller will be emailed by someone who *might* know more than the seller. The sellers reaction, or the lack there of, is then made public here. As a group, chip collecters try to keep new collectors from getting burned from paying more for an item than it is actually worth. It doesn't have anything to do with character assassination. It has everything to do with reaction and action taken to correct a misinformed description of an item offered for sale. Some sellers tell some of us to mind our own business. Others thank us for the information about what they have, and add the newly discovered information to their auction lots. "Rare" if there are 100's or millions availible means "rare" if your customer doesn't have one just doesn't cut it.

Your words about rare...
"1. New offering of a nice Crest & Seal chip that Chipguy had not previously seen in person or owned."

Nope. Not "rare", new to you.

"2. Limited quantity (I bought 10, and five were promised to other people before I even received them in the mail)"

Limited quantity available from you WOULD be honest and not mislead anyone. Knowledge of larger quantities available falls into the category of "Secrets and Lies". Some of us are actively trying to remove this aspect from this hobby.

"3. Not offered as singles by anyone else on eBay (it appears I may have been wrong about that, but a search for "poker chip" on eBay usually brings up about 750-800 items, and I concede I probably did miss Mr. Benedict's offering.)"

Listing the item as a poker chip has probably cost you more sales than you know. I personally check every eBay listing in chips daily, but, power searchs will yield an incomplete list.

"I assure you that I will continue to use the dreaded "R" word in my descriptions if I believe the above factors to be true. That is usually about 2%-5% of my auctions. I will do so as a service to my hundreds of regular customers, and the antique chip collecting community in general, even if it means that a handful of "nattering nabobs of negativity" who may have had access to this chip through other channels may object."

....you might want to rethink that. ....and that's all I'm gonna say!

Bob