Sorry to here your first sale didn't go that well. I think there a few things you could do:

1) Set a reserve price, so that if the bid doesnt hit the reserve you don't need to sell the item. Also, high shipping price may have been a deterrent to a lot of folks.

2) Break up auction into smaller lots. Even though its easier to sell one big lot, a lot of times people may not want certain chips. Also, you will find various folks not wanting to bid on higher priced auctions, but wouldn't mind bidding on one or two chips. I would have broke out the Binions Case and chips set and then sold the other casino chips as singles or at least in a subsets.

3) Start off by selling lower priced items. Many experienced ebayers have been burned by those who have low feedback and/or haven't sold many items. Build up your feedback by selling small, inexpensive items (like single chips) and once you've established that you are on the up and up, you start selling the more expensive stuff.

4) It seems like you got a lot of counter hits, but you can always add "Casino" to your description. Many folks have different ways to search for chips, you just want to hit those key words in your description.

Hope these make sense and good luck,
Greg