Rich, et al.,

I'm very pleased to see this message string. Those of us who publish price guides have the same debate among ourselves often.

I haven't spoken with Allan or Ernie about this one yet, but the issues you raise are exactly the questions we ask ourselves every year and after every auction.

- Does one auction price realized establish a chip's value?
- Supposing you know of other sales of the same chip at different values?
- If there's one person willing to pay $XXX for a chip, does that mean there's another?
- If a chip is the only one of its kind currently known, is there any rational justification for assigning a value OTHER than the only known sale (auction or otherwise) price?

As your posts illustrate, these aren't easy questions, and honest, well-intentioned collectors will disagree about the answers.

One thing that I don't think should influence a determination of current value, is that more might be discovered. That kind of speculation is out of place, I think. When - and if - more of a "one of a kind" are discovered, the value will change accordingly. But at any given time, the value of chips is determined by what collectors know and how many are available for purchase by those who are interested.

Michael