As indiacted by various eBay offerings, some of the WSOP Tournament chips have walked away from the event. I know of at least one eBay offering that shows an entire set, all 9 chips, as a single lot up for auction. (This same set was up last week, but for what ever reason was cancelled and the re-posted. This usually means the seller accepted an offer through non-eBay channels and cancelled the auction. If the deal fell through, then the lot got re-listed. Of course there could be other explanations, but this is typical.)
There are other eBay offerings for individual WSOP chips and as you might expect, they are commanding rather high prices. Several discussions are taking place over on thechipboard.com about the racks of WSOP chips, what might happen to them, will they be seen again next year, will Caesars Palace be the venue, or the Rio, etc.?
Obviously, the chip collecting community is interested in having samples sets and the CT community is interested in having playable sets, and although everyone might have an opinion as to what will happen to the chips, only tikme will tell.
However, there is a dastardly plot developing out there to take advantage of unsuspecting individuals by creating bogus WSOP error chips! Within the chip collecting community of individuals who also play poker at the various casinos, we have long known that the Bud Jones series of chips (like thos used at the WSOP) are easily altered to swap the vinyl inserts of two differenly denominated chips. So simple is the process, that once moved, both chips will appear as though the mishap took place at the factory!!!!
I caution everyone to not believe an offer (in person, or via email, or on eBay) where the WSOP chip being sold is billed as an error chip and the error is two different denominations on a single chip.
Pictured below, courtesy of CC>CC Hall of Famer and well known poker room manager, Mr. Gene Trimble, is the common WSOP error chip that this warning is about.
Taking this one step further, I would be cautious of any similar error chip from a seller will little or not standing within eBay. After all, how hard is it to scan two different chips and edit in any inlay you want with Photoshop, and post an auction?
And to compound matters more, the technique of swapping inlays on this style of Bud Jones chips is not new and some collectors have seen it done, by players, while they are waiting for the next hand. If you play poker, you know you can sit there for hours on end. epending on how bored one gets, is how much effort the spend playing with the chips, learning to shuffle, roll them on your hands, back spinning to have them return, swapping inlays, etc.
Anyway, please use caution and while you are out there, I'd love an email or PM to advise me of any such offerings.
Thanks,
Jim (Gaming Ore) Follis
10/5/07
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