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Individual chip collection under review (1 Viewer)

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DrStrange

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I have an opportunity to purchase a large collection of individual casino chips plus a bunch of misc. items like slot club cards, old poker chip collecting magazines, a few chip collecting books and some brik-a-brak. I am going to post the 25 framed displays but not the rest of the material. Please forgive the dodgy picture quality. The seller wasn't totally thrilled at the idea of me taking picture, I think he hoped I would pull a roll of $100 bills out and just buy on the spot.

I do not know much about individual chips. Please offer your opinions and if you think you want a piece of the collection, speak up.

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Lots of chips, and some pretty nice ones, but not a whole lot of big ticket items in those 25 cases. Nothing on my radar, in any case.

What cost-per-chip ballpark is he asking?
 
Very cool (and impressive collection). However, the presentation has much to be desired. I think if you buy this collection, I'd re-org it into cohesive groups (complete sample sets, or groupings of $1's, $5's, etc...). As is and considering the sheer volume, it's very random and hard to really see the chips, without looking at each and every one. Just my two cents.

If you wind up with duplicates and are looking to trade/sell off some of them, let me know :)
 
Seems like a tricky situation to me. If you offer too low, you offend the seller because he may have spent a lifetime collecting and thus the sentimental value is higher than the market value.

If you don't offer at all, he deems it like you are shitting on his collection.

Best case scenario, the experts here deem you got a "good price" for some nice chips, but what will you do with thousands of individual pieces of memorabilia that you don't necessarily want or need? You may not even have the wall space for the displays, and selling a few chips at a time just seems like an arduous task.

If I were in your position, I'd make sure I knew what he was expecting in terms of selling price. Then, you can assess your other chip ventures and give an honest response that, while his collection is beautiful and impressive, you may need to reserve funds for other purchases.

Or, maybe you are blown away by the price and buy the lot and piss off your wife when her artwork ends up in the basement [emoji14]
 
But seriously, a large number of the chips are still live, so that will fix their price somewhat. You may find that he wants basically face value for most of them. (However, given that it is a large lot, I think a reasonable discount to face is appropriate for those chips.) not sure how to value the rest.

I think he needs to throw out a figure first, then work from there. After all, he's the one that wants to sell them--it's not like you have been after him incessantly for the chips.
 
His first price was $6,000 offered in July. I posted about it here: http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threa...-individual-chip-collecting-being-sold.13805/

We both got busy and I didn't get back to him till now, six weeks later. Tonight he suggested he could go as low as $5,000. I get the sense he might be sticky at this price because he likely paid a lot more over the 15-20 years he has been collecting.

There are roughly 1,600 chips - so lets call it $3/chip.

This guy doesn't do the internet and buys mostly off of promotional material from chip collecting newsletters. I am sure he overpaid. He says he has almost $20,000 in the collection This means he never has looked at eBay or done a google search.

I tried explaining the concept of "playable sets" when I told him what I do with chips but I am not sure he understood or believed me.

I am still scratching my head. The displays look pretty but I could by some nice sets for that much money.
 
gopherblue said:
But seriously, a large number of the chips are still live, so that will fix their price somewhat. You may find that he wants basically face value for most of them. (However, given that it is a large lot, I think a reasonable discount to face is appropriate for those chips.)
Click to expand...

The seller might not be considering the cost to actually redeem those chips...

Ask the seller if you were to give him $500 worth of currency from 100 different countries, how much of that $50,000 would be left after he traveled to each country to redeem it...?

I certainly wouldn't want to travel to 30 different Vegas casinos looking to redeem $6 in chips... Now, in redeemable quantities (racks), I think face value is a valid argument. Otherwise, their value is more for their novelty aspect.
 
DrStrange said:
His first price was $6,000 offered in July. I posted about it here: http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threa...-individual-chip-collecting-being-sold.13805/

We both got busy and I didn't get back to him till now, six weeks later. Tonight he suggested he could go as low as $5,000. I get the sense he might be sticky at this price because he likely paid a lot more over the 15-20 years he has been collecting.

There are roughly 1,600 chips - so lets call it $3/chip.

This guy doesn't do the internet and buys mostly off of promotional material from chip collecting newsletters. I am sure he overpaid. He says he has almost $20,000 in the collection This means he never has looked at eBay or done a google search.

I tried explaining the concept of "playable sets" when I told him what I do with chips but I am not sure he understood or believed me.

I am still scratching my head. The displays look pretty but I could by some nice sets for that much money.
Click to expand...

And value isn't what YOU paid for them over 20 years, it's what someone is willing to pay for them now. IMHO, I would be thinking an avg of $1/chip (maybe $1.50/chip). Some would be worth more for sure, and some would be way less. If you consider the value of the display cases (maybe $50 each used), then tack on some more. I'm not an expert, but that's just what my gut is telling be.
 
Trihonda said:
The seller might not be considering the cost to actually redeem those chips...

Ask the seller if you were to give him $500 worth of currency from 100 different countries, how much of that $50,000 would be left after he traveled to each country to redeem it...?

I certainly wouldn't want to travel to 30 different Vegas casinos looking to redeem $6 in chips... Now, in redeemable quantities (racks), I think face value is a valid argument. Otherwise, their value is more for their novelty aspect.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree, but try explaining that to the good folks on the chipboard.
 
After hearing that floor price, just tell him that you appreciate him thinking of you, but you don't have the funds available to make a purchase of that magnitude at the moment. However, note that you will post pictures for friends of yours who are also chip aficionados and will gladly broker a deal if there is interest.
 
DrStrange said:
There are roughly 1,600 chips - so lets call it $3/chip.
Click to expand...

Listing them all individually on eBay might get that on average after a LONG time, given the mix of denominations. But $20K? No friggin' way. Not worth the hassle (or contain any hidden gems) to make it worthwhile for me personally.
 
I looked at the pricing on chips being offered in the collection of chip collecting news letters. Let's just say the newsletter prices were almost laugh out loud crazy in some cases, and never cheap that I saw. I think he could have spent close to 20K on his collection, especially if there was shipping involved.

Shipping is the hidden devil for individual collectors. I think you could come close to $2/chip just in shipping costs if they are purchased one at a time. Friction is a big deal when we buy our chips a hundred at a time. Buying them one at a time makes friction close to the dominant factor to consider.
 
DrStrange said:
I looked at the pricing on chips being offered in the collection of chip collecting news letters. Let's just say the newsletter prices were almost laugh out loud crazy in some cases, and never cheap that I saw. I think he could have spent close to 20K on his collection, especially if there was shipping involved.

Shipping is the hidden devil for individual collectors. I think you could come close to $2/chip just in shipping costs if they are purchased one at a time. Friction is a big deal when we buy our chips a hundred at a time. Buying them one at a time makes friction close to the dominant factor to consider.
Click to expand...

This is NO different than a hotrod enthusiast who spends $100k to soup up their car, with nitro turbo crap... They're lucky to get pennies on the dollar when they sell...
 
The example I was thinking of was my mother's fascination with Hallmark Christmas ornaments and Franklin Mint silver proofs. I know she spent well over $30,000 on them over the years and depended on a quarterly newsletter to tell her what they were worth. Many times she would come to town to visit and make a spot inspection to make sure we were keeping the boxes pristine (and not selling them off for big bucks) Then came internet and eBay. It took her years to gather the courage to look up the real prices actually being paid rather than the "list" prices from the company sponsored newsletters.

I still have binders full of Franklin Mint tokens - each worth the smelt value of the silver. The Hallmark stuff is long gone, sold for pennies on the dollar.

I am afraid this guys chip collection is going to turn out to be worth ten cents on the dollar as he finds the retail plus price he paid has little to do with the current sales price. Nothing anyone has said makes me think these chips are worth two bucks each. Lots of ceramics from rather obscure venues.
 
Don't get me started on mothers and Franklin Mint silver proofs...... :(
 
Yeah I don't see much in there that is rare or valuable. A few obsolete chips that can't be worth much more than face, otherwise it is a lot of current chips. Unfortunately it is not the type of collection that will go up in value.
 
I didn't see anything that interesting in the collection. I think it would be such a hassle to sell all those individual chips that I wouldn't even pay 1k for them all. I'd rather put that money towards customs or playable sets of chips.
 
I would walk. Maybe cic Sahara are worth a little and some other obsolete, but this is more for the individual collector who has nothing and wants to jump start the collection. The $8 chips worth abt 10 to 12.

I was surprised how many of those i got off tables and are on my wall
 
**** Results ****

We ended up making a deal at $2,000 for the set. I picked it up today.

The exchange was a pretty sad experience. It was like taking your kid's dog to the shelter - big eyes, not quite weeping. I get to hear the story how he got declared indigent for his medical expenses and now pays only a nominal fee - $100 on a $15,250 bill for example. Even so, money is tight, his pension was cancelled through bankruptcy as was his life time medical care. "But at least we are keeping the cat".

I am not quite sure how to make use of all of the materials. No doubt some inspiration will come.

DrStrange
 
Well, he can take some solace that his coveted collection of chips will be going to an enthusiast who will cherish them.

Sounds like this guy was emotionally invested in his collection. Nice score.
 
I also got over a hundred different editions of "The Casino Collectable News" and "Gaming Times" which I see actually have almost significant value on eBay. Plus a box filled with all sorts of brik-a-brak.

In these publications, I see lots of ads for individual chips, never cheap but sometimes at truly astonishing prices. I can easily see how a computer illiterate single chip collector might spend a fortune on a collection, never knowing how much he got screwed. (how illiterate? No email, never used google nor eBay. )

Looking over some of his scratch notes, I think he spent more on his 1,600+ chip collection than I have on all my sets combined (that is over 30,000 chips).

However, the chips did find their way to a good home where people will get to see them and they will be appreciated.
 

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