Very few Europeans collect gaming pieces with the exception of metal pieces from the UK and France, so there is very little printed material available to the student other than older priclists/auction catalogs.

As far as why are prices so high, I think only the rarer material is priced high and the common/current material is virtually at the same levels as US material (there are some very good offers at e-Bay Auctions). Also, one must remember that European casinos of years past were much smaller than American casinos... thus huge inventories were not needed on the game. This fact coupled with destruction practices imposed by some jurisdictions limits availability even more.

I'm always a buyer of the obsolete higher denomination UK, French and Italian material... especially if Mother-of-Pearl.

I've been very fortunate to have found excellent trading partners during the past 15 years.. and, I should mention that trading partners do not have to be chip collectors. I've been sending fountain pens, postage stamps and dice over to Europe in trade for jetons/plaques for many years.

JB