Hey Jim, if a young guy like you heads to bed that early, I wonder how early
you'll hit the bed once you get old like many of the rest of us? <G>
Of course, you make many good points about "doing your homework" before you
bid, and so forth.
BUT, you are situated in one of the "major locales" for chip collectors and dealers; you're able to attend every show in town, often be in contact with dealers, and so on. Thus, if a box of very scarce chips happens to come out of hiding, you have a good chance of hearing about it. Those of us in N.J. who
get to Atlantic City also have good "contacts" to hear what is going on in the world of chips.
However, put yourself in the shoes of many chip collectors who might reside in
Janesville, Wisc., Macon, Ga., Tulsa, OK., or any of thousands of other places. Maybe they get to Las Vegas once a year for the convention, if even then. They might get the CC&GTCC quarterly, and maybe they buy the new Chip Rack each year. When they think of bidding on a chip, they might seek out the value as listed in TCR, and that's likely to be their only source of a value of an older chip. The point I'm making is that its great to advise folks to do their homework, but the guy living in some of those locales does not have the advantages of "inside chip news" that is available to the many chippers and dealers in Nevada.
Regards, Don