Alex, I'm not running for anything, but I can't resist the opportunity! <G>

Your questions are good ones. But I agree with Jim Steffner's response: the Club isn't a regulatory agency, and shouldn't become a police force even within the hobby.

To my way of thinking, we already have a mechanism in place that deals with collectors and dealers who misrepresent the rarity of items they have for trade or sale. It's called the Code of Ethics. We even have an appointed officer to investigate complaints by members who believe the Code has been violated, to their detriment: Jim Reilly, Claims Director.

As for large numbers of chips suddenly being found (given the size of our hobby, 200 chips is a large number!), thereby reducing the value of the chips already in collectors' hands, I'm afraid it will always be possible, and there's not a thing the Club could do even if it wanted to.

That's exactly the reason that when someone asked the following question at the Ask the Masters seminar, I gave the following response:
"Supposing I had $100,000 to invest in chips. What should I buy?"
My response: "If you had $100,000 to invest, I wouldn't recommend investing in chips at all! Collectors' markets are far too volatile, and there is certainly no reasonable expectation of eventual gain."

Michael