Just read this in the latest POKERPRO magazine:
http://www.ccgtcc.com/cgi-bin/bbs521/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=30197
CASINO CHIP COLLECTIBLES IN A RECESSION—NOT!
The auction started at $2.25, where it ended set a new record for a $1 chip from a casino in Nevada, the closed Showboat Casino in Las Vegas, open from 1954-2001. The chip has, according to one source, only TWO known surviving examples and was valued as high as $15,000.00! The closing price: $28, 988.88!
Sandy Marbs of Florissant, Mo was the seller! And what a story she had to tell! The chip did indeed lie in her jewelry box for 47 years as she said. She was searching for things to sell on eBay in that box and thought, “Why not?” Sandy, retired from Kwik Kopy & Express Scripts and living essentially on Social Security had only since January of 2008 been a seller on eBay! She hadn’t been to Las Vegas in 8 years and only had a few other chips from that last trip PLUS the $28,988.88 MONSTER! She was inundated by emails after the listing was posted, she turned down offers of $1,000.00, $4,000.00 and $5,000.00 to end the listing early! Sandy was aided by members of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc., who urged her to provide better pictures so that the chips’ value could be more readily appreciated!
Sandy, who readily admits that she is slightly in awe of this occurrence, is nonetheless delighted at the sales amount. To quote Sandy, “I went to Walgreens and bought a small round ceramic trinket box, I placed the chip in tissue paper and put the trinket box inside a red velvet box, I put that box in another box and that box in another box and went to the post office! I placed a picture of me from the year I got the chip along with a picture of me holding the chip last Sunday and sent it off registered mail to the buyer, Glenn Grush!”
“I was thinking about delivering it in person,” she said!
“What a great story. She had just started selling things on eBay this year in the $5-$30 range. I bet she would have taken $10 if someone had offered it to her. The honesty from all the chippers who contacted her made quite an impression. Good things do happen to good people,” Doug Johnson, CC>CC member!
“I will only say it will be a great addition to my collection”, says Glenn Grush, buyer of the $1 Showboat Casino Chip
Wayne Thompson, President of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc., said, “It's always exciting to see a record broken on rare chips. While this is the highest price paid for a $1 chip we have seen at least one Sahara $100 chip bring $100,000 cash. There are certain chips that are considered classic rarities just like in any hobby. The CC>CC has some members who are always looking for the rarest and the best and are willing to pay the price as illustrated by this purchase. Most of our almost 3000 members collect at a much lower price scale but derive the same enjoyment from the hobby. We are truly fortunate to have such a diversity of members.”
The previous biggest auction sale of a $1 Chip was purportedly an El Cortez chip in August of 2005 which went on eBay for $7,212.
Previous HIGH-END chips that sold on eBay also brought record prices in recent years!
Among them are:
A one-of-a-kind $5 Hacienda Casino chip in Las Vegas on April 15, 2001 sold on eBay
for $15,100!
This record stood until March 14, 2004, when a Sands Las Vegas Casino chip from the
early '50s sold for $33,000 to an anonymous bidder, also on eBay. The $5 chip,
in near-mint condition, depicts a desert scene with a cactus and the Sands' catch
phrase "A Place In The Sun," and is one of only five known to exist!
A Last Frontier Casino $5 chip, sold in December, 2005 for $39,345, on eBay!
The 2004 record was then smashed in 2006 at the CC>C convention, when a
$25 chip from the Sahara, depicting a left-facing camel (the main factor in its
rarity) sold for $67,000. The original buyer bought it on eBay in a lot of chips that sold for $1 each!
And last but not least, this record was broken earlier this year, 2008, by another Sahara
chip, this time of $100 denomination and depicting a Sphinx, which purportedly sold for
$100,000 cash!
The Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc. is holing its 16th annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Riviera Hotel & Casino from June 18th through June 21st! The showroom floor is open to the public with an admission’s fee starting on Thursday, June 19th, 2008! For more information contact the CC>CC at their web site: www.ccgtcc.com
http://www.ccgtcc.com/cgi-bin/bbs521/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=30197
CASINO CHIP COLLECTIBLES IN A RECESSION—NOT!
The auction started at $2.25, where it ended set a new record for a $1 chip from a casino in Nevada, the closed Showboat Casino in Las Vegas, open from 1954-2001. The chip has, according to one source, only TWO known surviving examples and was valued as high as $15,000.00! The closing price: $28, 988.88!
Sandy Marbs of Florissant, Mo was the seller! And what a story she had to tell! The chip did indeed lie in her jewelry box for 47 years as she said. She was searching for things to sell on eBay in that box and thought, “Why not?” Sandy, retired from Kwik Kopy & Express Scripts and living essentially on Social Security had only since January of 2008 been a seller on eBay! She hadn’t been to Las Vegas in 8 years and only had a few other chips from that last trip PLUS the $28,988.88 MONSTER! She was inundated by emails after the listing was posted, she turned down offers of $1,000.00, $4,000.00 and $5,000.00 to end the listing early! Sandy was aided by members of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc., who urged her to provide better pictures so that the chips’ value could be more readily appreciated!
Sandy, who readily admits that she is slightly in awe of this occurrence, is nonetheless delighted at the sales amount. To quote Sandy, “I went to Walgreens and bought a small round ceramic trinket box, I placed the chip in tissue paper and put the trinket box inside a red velvet box, I put that box in another box and that box in another box and went to the post office! I placed a picture of me from the year I got the chip along with a picture of me holding the chip last Sunday and sent it off registered mail to the buyer, Glenn Grush!”
“I was thinking about delivering it in person,” she said!
“What a great story. She had just started selling things on eBay this year in the $5-$30 range. I bet she would have taken $10 if someone had offered it to her. The honesty from all the chippers who contacted her made quite an impression. Good things do happen to good people,” Doug Johnson, CC>CC member!
“I will only say it will be a great addition to my collection”, says Glenn Grush, buyer of the $1 Showboat Casino Chip
Wayne Thompson, President of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc., said, “It's always exciting to see a record broken on rare chips. While this is the highest price paid for a $1 chip we have seen at least one Sahara $100 chip bring $100,000 cash. There are certain chips that are considered classic rarities just like in any hobby. The CC>CC has some members who are always looking for the rarest and the best and are willing to pay the price as illustrated by this purchase. Most of our almost 3000 members collect at a much lower price scale but derive the same enjoyment from the hobby. We are truly fortunate to have such a diversity of members.”
The previous biggest auction sale of a $1 Chip was purportedly an El Cortez chip in August of 2005 which went on eBay for $7,212.
Previous HIGH-END chips that sold on eBay also brought record prices in recent years!
Among them are:
A one-of-a-kind $5 Hacienda Casino chip in Las Vegas on April 15, 2001 sold on eBay
for $15,100!
This record stood until March 14, 2004, when a Sands Las Vegas Casino chip from the
early '50s sold for $33,000 to an anonymous bidder, also on eBay. The $5 chip,
in near-mint condition, depicts a desert scene with a cactus and the Sands' catch
phrase "A Place In The Sun," and is one of only five known to exist!
A Last Frontier Casino $5 chip, sold in December, 2005 for $39,345, on eBay!
The 2004 record was then smashed in 2006 at the CC>C convention, when a
$25 chip from the Sahara, depicting a left-facing camel (the main factor in its
rarity) sold for $67,000. The original buyer bought it on eBay in a lot of chips that sold for $1 each!
And last but not least, this record was broken earlier this year, 2008, by another Sahara
chip, this time of $100 denomination and depicting a Sphinx, which purportedly sold for
$100,000 cash!
The Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc. is holing its 16th annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Riviera Hotel & Casino from June 18th through June 21st! The showroom floor is open to the public with an admission’s fee starting on Thursday, June 19th, 2008! For more information contact the CC>CC at their web site: www.ccgtcc.com
