Today there were two auctions for virtually identical specimens of $1 New Frontier chips. Both look to be in exceptional condition for circulated chips and both come from very respected sellers with whom many of us have done business at one time or another. Here are the two auctions.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=899&item=3200307666

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=899&item=3201373016&rd=1

Al's scan in his auction is razor sharp, and of course Bill, with his slightly lower resolution scans, seems to make every chip look great. But in no way would you look and say that Bill's chip was in better condition than Al's.

Al usually does the low-start with reserve scenario in his auctions and Bill starts his at a level acceptable to him with no reserve. The auctions ended today within 5 hours of each other.

To save you looking... here are the results. Al's auction with the reserve started at $5 and made it all the way up to $28, where the reserve was still not met.

Bill's auction without the reserve started at $60 and got a second bid, bringing the finish to $61.

I think that clearly there are many people who are not interested in pursuing auctions with reserves. With these lower priced items the concept just doesn't work too well. Maybe with a house or a car, it could be a different story, but I think that the reserve scenario has an element of "trickiness" that people don't like.