Welcome to The Chip Board. I hope you find it a pleasant and friendly place to learn about and enjoy our hobby.

Assuming you are talking about currently available chips, 2 times face is a good deal for $1 and under denominations. Above that value it starts to get a little pricey. I wouldn't want to have to pay $10 for every $5 chip I got and I certainly wouldn't want to pay $50 for the $25's.

The best way of course is to trade chips. Are you near a casino? If so, pick up a few nice condition chips from there next time you are able. Then, offer them for trade for chips you don't have. That is the way most of us have built up our collections. You will find a diverse group of collectors here and many that will want to trade common stuff for other common stuff.

Greg