"My poor little brain is still debating whether I should purchase a chip over $100... if I buy a $500 or $1000 chip now, and then the casino retires the rack... what happens to the value of my chip?"

It's still worth face unless there is a redemption notice issued by the casino stating they will not honor the piece after a specified date.

While I know of no redemption notice for the Paris French roulette jetons, I doubt Skip would sell you the jeton below for what I charged him for it. He probably wouldn't sell it back to me for what he paid me for it... ...if he would, I'd buy it back!

Higher face value chip purchases have some inherent risks involved. By all means, don't collect them if future value is a priority. Collect them if you can afford to, if they help you complete (or partially complete) a specialized area of chip collecting.

Bob