I will use this page to store information and experiences that you may or may not find useful regarding chipping. My first article will deal with the buying of chips on ebay:

Ebay can be a wonderful way to accumulate chips. Often, you can buy chips at less than face value or get a really good deal on that rare or obsolete chip that you are missing. However, eBay has certain traps and pitfalls that must be avoided. Here are some tips to help chippers on eBay.

I see chippers bidding prices up on eBay that are well over what they would pay if they simply bought the chip directly from a collector/dealer. What makes this worse is that often the eBay chip will not be as good a quality chip as that provided by the collector. Don't get caught up in the auction process and know what you are buying. Always check book prices, dealer prices, and "buy it now" prices BEFORE you bid.

Sniping a chip at far more than its worth only wins you the auction. It did not enhance your collection. Trust me when I say that it isn't the first time that chip has ever become available and it won't be the last. There is always another auction.

To send a chip in a nice bubble wrap envelope will cost about a $1. Therefore, a shipping charge of $1 to $1.50 seems fair assuming the chip will be packaged well. Try and avoid sellers charging $4 or $5 for shipping a single chip even if you think the chip is still a good deal. Such sellers deserve to be boycotted by the chipping community. Also, a good seller will always offer or agree to combine shipping. If the seller refuses to combine shipping then you should refuse to buy from them in the future as they are essentially stealing from you.

These are good folks bound by club ethics. I am always willing to pay a little more to get a chip from a seller with a club id assuming they are in line with 1 and 2 above.

Ebay feedback is a fiction because many sellers will not leave feedback until it is first left for them. The purpose of this is so that they can threaten the buyer with negative feedback should they dare to leave an unfavorable comment. Often, these same sellers will also state in their auction that they will not accept bids from buyers with negative feedback. The result of this is that many buyers simply do not leave feedback rather than leave a negative. Thus the feedback percentage is inflated.

Any seller who does not leave feedback first should be identified and avoided in future auctions. There is a reason that they indulge in this practice and you should want nothing to do with them. These are often the same sellers who won't combine shipping and who can't accept Paypal or credit card payments because they have a bad history somewhere. So you should also look carefully at any seller who doesn't accept Paypal payments.

Obviously, if money is no object and spending hundreds of dollars on rare chips is part of your weekly routine then what follows isn't for you....

When I first started this "hobby", I was looking at some of the existing collections and using "fuzzy" math it didn't take long to realize that a collection of 3000 chips of various denominations and collectability probably required an investment of at least $10,000 and even then you haven't made a dent in all the chips that are available.

Not really. You have just discovered the reason that most collectors have a certain collecting "focus" rather than simply attempting to get them all. Some folks collect only $1 chips and others focus on a certain area such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Tunica. There are collectors who seek only Indian Casino chips, Holiday Chips, Band Chips, Grand Opening Chips, Celebrity Chips, and the list goes on and on.

Having a focus will enable you to establish a very nice collection. For instance, if you decided to focus on Las Vegas (around 80 casinos) you will have a pretty good investment in chips just trying to accumulate all of the current and recent obsoletes from that area before you ever get your first true "collectable". If you focus on Atlantic City (12 casinos) or Tunica (9 casinos), you can easily get all of the current chips and even some higher denominations and obsoletes for very little money.

The real secret to "chipping on the cheap" is trading. If you have a casino area nearby where you can simply buy the chips at face value and then trade them for other chips at face value, you have just found the most cost effective way to expand your collection. With casinos popping up all over the US, this has become easier in recent years.

Another trick is to try a "steal" chips on eBay. Chips and chip lots on eBay are occasionally listed at far less than face value and sometimes you will be the only bidder and win one of these lots. Be aware that others are trying to do this and such strategy requires some patience and discipline but it can be done. Even if you aren't interested in the chips being auctioned, these can make great traders if you can get them at less than face.

A final thought: I occasionally come across a collector who has a very specific and unusual collection and I tend to find these more fascinating than the "general" collections since I wouldn't really know a rare Nevada chip if it were dropped into my lap.

In summary, this can be a really fun "hobby" for everyone and you don't have to spend a great deal to really enjoy it and create a very nice collection.

It all started when I bought a chip that I thought would be a nice collector piece. When it arrived in the mail I can't tell you how disappointed I was. The thing was absolutely covered with crud. You couldn't even read the imprint. With nothing to lose, I got an old toothbrush and some dish soap and started to clean the chip. Well, it didn't just come clean, it came REALLY clean. It is now the collector piece that I had hoped for when I bought it.

Now, I clean all of the chips in my collection and most of them look like brand new. I don't know why anyone would want to leave a chip dirty. If you are standing at the table, you certainly don't grab the filthiest chip for your collection do you?. You try and snag a clean new one right? Modern chips are really works of art and the cleaning really brings out the artwork.

As a side note: when I first started collecting, I would indeed look for the "cleanest" chips at the table. That's a trap. Forget how "clean" the chip is and instead focus on its quality. Are the edges nice and sharp? Is it free of scuffs and dings? You can always clean the chip, you can't repair any damage.

Many traders will warn me that the chip they are sending is a "table chip" and dirty. My wife would say that if they really knew me at all that they just made my day since I just love to break out my chip restoration supplies and start cleaning. In my opinion, half the fun of collecting is handling and cleaning the chips and really looking at them. Until I started collecting, I had never REALLY looked at them. That's all changed now.