It's hard to find a "deal" on a base level chip. Heck a salesmans sample or Fantasy chip could sell for $3 including shipping.

I suppose less than face value would be a deal, for a current chip, but then you have to pay shipping.

I'd suggest you look for the bunch of chip type sales. Someone selling 24 chips from XYZ or 7 chips from ABC Etc. You can often get them for a good price and they all get shipped together.

There are lots of these sales and I use them myself when I get bored and want to clean out a stack of chips that are taking up space.

Problem with some of these is that you might find 7 chips and 6 are of some interest and the other is a piece of junk. Well you are buying more traders I guess.

I don't expect to find many $1 and down, common chips for less than $3 (including shipping) on eBay. What's the point? The seller has to pay 34 cents for shipping, 30 cents for eBay listing, buy an envelope, print a receipt or address label, possibly a percentage for Paypal, eBay sales commission, plus the chip itself. Just selling the chip can cost the seller $2! Why bother running an auction and going through all that trouble and effort for a buck or less profit?

Pretty much the same for $5 chips. If you can get one for $6 including shipping, that's a steal for an auction. $7 would be pretty much standard.

Simple conclusion from my point of view, if it's a single chip, $2 over face is a real DEAL.

Put yourself in the sellers place and see what you think?

The arrowdie pictured below is starting at $3, has no bids and is worn. Now that's a "cheap chip"!
I may get no bids for this, which says something about "how low can you go?" It also means I had to pay eBay something to NOT sell a chip. All part of the equation for expenses.