Brian,
Like it of not, in most hobbies where there is a secondary market demand, there will be Those who "make the connection" to get as many as they can so they can sell for profit. I have done this in other hobbies and will probably do it with chips as well. Your question whether this is good for the hobby, I think, can be answered this way; In part the individual or group that has access to an item and makes it available to the general collector (at a profit, and why not) is actually making the task of acquiring chips much easier for the general collector. How can we fly to Vegas every time a new chip is released? We can't,but we can via 3rd party get these items. In the process we are willing to pay extra for another doing the legwork. It simply is not feasible for a casino to announce a new chip and then process thousands of mail orders for same to individual collectors. The system needs a 3rd party and they exist in any high demand hobby. You asked for some opinions, this is mine. Hope I didn't confuse the issue more then help it.