My original post is pretty far down the line now so I thought I would expand my view a tad more. It’s seems a few people may have missed construed what I was trying to convey in my previous “personal observation” post. Possibly in my haste to get my thoughts out, I did not clearly elaborate.

As Mark Erickson stated in his response post to me, “I can see you’re not targeting the guide authors for criticism”.

Mark, you are CORRECT!

In no way was I attempting to disparage, ridicule or say anything negative about C&W or TCR. I firmly believe both guides are well drafted educational materials and I would be one of the first in line to buy any future editions. I think all authors do as much research as possible to accurately reflect their thoughts on all the chips they highlight. And I would hope new finds and corresponding price adjustments would be added accordingly. However, unless each chip purchase and sale is reported like the trades of the stock market as it occurs, everything is just a reasonable guess. And only a reasonable guess until the next new publication is printed.

I believe a couple of things have happened to the chip hobby. First, the chip market (IMO) got overheated about 2 ½ years ago which was just prior to, during, and somewhat after the purchase and subsequent sale of the Platinum collection. The two major collectors that together purchased the chip portion of the collection, kept a substantial portion of many high end rare chips for their own collection. While a few may call those two dealers, (yes they both buy and sell), I believe them to be truly collectors at heart.

As for the rest of the collection, a substantial number of high end rare chips went to one person that paid prices as far as I was concerned, were off this planet. The balance in bits and pieces went into the hands of other serious collectors such as me.

As word got around what people were paying for some of those chips, dealers all of a sudden believed their own inventories were worth more regardless of condition or rarity. The other anomaly that occurred, a few individuals thinking this was an opportunity to make a quick buck jumped in. They became instant dealers only to find out that many had gotten stuck at the top of the frenzy and subsequently looked for a way to bail themselves out. I can think of two individuals that were NEW to the hobby at that time; that started buying everything in sight only to turn around and attempt to sell out their overpriced purchases, and ultimately ended up doing so at a substantial discount to their original cost.

And lastly, I contend the proliferation of new finds and the ones or two chips that show up on eBay, that no one ever thought existed out of the shoebox have their own effects on price and rarity.

The point I really wanted to stress or what my “personal observation” was meant to say…. individuals who are claiming you are buying a bargain right now if you use the current book by C&W because the book is more than three years old may be totally misleading the buyer.