[Mr. Creosote]

If this topic has come up before, please let me know. A hypothetical situation: You're looking through Ebay's completed listings and notice that a $5 Dunes chip sold for $45.00. You think, "I've seen that chip somewhere..." You get the cigar box from your closet and, lo and behold, you have 130 of these same chips. You are not well off and bills need to be paid. Ebay looks to be your best bet. Do you list the $5 Dunes one at a time, and continue to list each subsequent one?
It seems to me that bidders will quickly lose patience with this, never knowing when the supply will run out. (or worse, think that you're knocking them out on your "Mattel Easy-make Chip Maker") Do you list the chips as a lot of 130, or in similar small lots? Should the bidders know how many you have? Do you list on CT? Maybe you don't have enough "chips" to list. Is there an ethical element to not disclosing the number you have? What would you do?

[jdunford]

You definitely don't have to list how many you have. A lot of eBayers will sell the same item(s) over and over, without any indication of when their supply will run out, etc. I see no problem with trying to maximize your profits.

To absolutely max out, you would sell them one-by-one, listing only one at a time. However, if you really have 130, this will take a year or two... CTers will generally pay a fair fixed "price per chip" for any volume, but you're definitely not going to get $45 each! (even on eBay, you'll average much less than that). I'm guessing you're not in a huge hurry (especially considering they've been sitting in your closet for quite some time). If I were you, I'd probably consider selling them in lots of 10-20 on eBay. But you might get several offers here before you even get that far...

[gmunny]

JD has some good points.

Depending on the chip and its perceived scarcity, telling people you have a certain number can harm the value, put people will figure it out sooner or later, especially if you list them one at a time back to back. I don't think you have to list how many you have either. I do beleive, that if someone asks, you should tell them, though.

If you need the money and want to sell the whole lot, you need to get a good idea of the market value of the chips at this volume. I'd recommend you ask a few collectible chip retailers (pm me and I can give you a names/e-mails) to give you a quote, but remember they need to make that money back so they will definately pay you below what they think the market is. You can make a post on CT and the chipboard to get offers of what people would pay for them. And finally you can test it out on ebay, though I'd recommend a reserve.

Good luck!

[Mr. Creosote]

Thank you for the responses. First, I don;t have 130 Dunes chips. Secondly, for the sake of argument let's assume that the last five ebay sales of this hypothetical chip have been for $45.00 and that they have been bought by five different CT members. So the price of the "$5.00 Dunes" has been set by those in the know. Any further thoughts?

[shadesofgrey]

Originally Posted by Mr. Creosote

Thank you for the responses. First, I don;t have 130 Dunes chips. Secondly, for the sake of argument let's assume that the last five ebay sales of this hypothetical chip have been for $45.00 and that they have been bought by five different CT members. So the price of the "$5.00 Dunes" has been set by those in the know. Any further thoughts?

Thats sad, I thought you meant you found 130 dunes you forgot about

Ebay is a beast of its own. I've seen chips misrepresented and sold at a much higher price than any sane person should pay. and some sold below their value. Heck, ive watched goof balls on ebay buy chips at 2X a normal price then take a bath on them when they decide to re-sell them on ebay.

If you come across an expensive set of chips... Do what Gmunny said. ask some serious collectors what they would pay... based on that response decide if you want to "work" for the extra $$ by selling them one at a time on ebay, or do a lump transaction.

I wouldnt say youre under any obligation to telll how many you have, but if someone inquires... you could decide for yourself.

Jeez I would love to find a set of dunes stashed in my house hopefully with a bunch of $1s...

[gmunny]

Originally Posted by Mr. Creosote

Thank you for the responses. First, I don;t have 130 Dunes chips. Secondly, for the sake of argument let's assume that the last five ebay sales of this hypothetical chip have been for $45.00 and that they have been bought by five different CT members. So the price of the "$5.00 Dunes" has been set by those in the know. Any further thoughts?

I'm not sure what you are asking. If the last 5 ebay sales is $45, then yes, that is the going rate today if you were going to sell it on ebay. There are some chip buyers that don't shop on ebay and they may be willing to pay more (premium) than what the ebay rate is if the chip seller is well known/reputable.

I've seen chip prices vary greatly on ebay and other places, so there is no magic number. As a seller, figure out what you think is a fair price and try to sell it at that price. If no one is buying than maybe its too high, then you can either reduce the price or not sell. I should note, what price you bought the item for doesn't have anything to do with what people are willing to buy that item for.

Good luck!

[Mr. Creosote]

I guess what I'm asking is: does a sudden influx of rare chips affect the market price, and is there a moral obligation on the part of the seller to let the chip collecting community know how many of these are for sale? Let's change the sale price of the chip to $1000.00. Does that make any difference? I'm sorry if my original post wasn't clear. My fault.

[Jonah 99]

Market values are determined by supply and demand.

if a new supply is found this will eventually drive the price down.
A seller is not obligated to disclose the amount of their supply.

When the item keeps coming up for sale the buyers will get a new sense of their availability (increased supply) and if they have fulfilled their purchases demand will be decreased, and yes this will affect the price.

Creating an aire of scaricity to infuence market prices is nothing new, it happens every time a new game system comes out on the market.

[jdunford]

Originally Posted by Jonah 99

Market values are determined by supply and demand.

if a new supply is found this will eventually drive the price down.
A seller is not obligated to disclose the amount of their supply.

When the item keeps coming up for sale the buyers will get a new sense of their availability (increased supply) and if they have fulfilled their purchases demand will be decreased, and yes this will affect the price.

Creating an aire of scaricity to infuence market prices is nothing new, it happens every time a new game system comes out on the market.

A poker chip example of this is the actual movie prop chips from Rounders ("Teddy KGB" and "Chesterfields"). When they were first available individually and as sample sets, they were going for several hundred apiece. But the supplier (a charity organization affiliated with Miramax) kept selling more and more, sometimes in stacks of 10 or so, and once the people willing to spend hundreds of dollars had them already and it was clear that racks of them were going to be sold, the price per chip (i.e. average price paid on eBay) dropped to around $25 - $50 depending on the denom.

If you announce that you have lots, or even sell them in lots of more than 10, the price per chip will drop. The first few lots of 10 will probably net the current value, but it'll drop after that. If you keep releasing them one-by-one, the value might not change very quickly (depending how big the market for these individual chips is), but it'll take a lot longer to make any serious money. Having said that, at $45 a pop, you could probably make $400 on the first 10 you sell individually, which is almost definitely more than you would get for a lot of 10 (I'd estimate $100-200).

[gmunny]

Originally Posted by Mr. Creosote

I guess what I'm asking is: does a sudden influx of rare chips affect the market price, and is there a moral obligation on the part of the seller to let the chip collecting community know how many of these are for sale? Let's change the sale price of the chip to $1000.00. Does that make any difference? I'm sorry if my original post wasn't clear. My fault.

I think I understand the question now. I believe the sudden influx of "rare" chips does affect the market price. Rare can be subjective though, but that's another discussion. An example of this was seen when an ebay seller started selling this chip.



The above chip per the Campligia and Wells Chip Price Guide is listed as Very Rare with only 16-30 chips known an estimate value of between $400-$800. It was later found out that there was at least a rack (100) of these chips in new condition. The first few chips sold on ebay were fetching at least the $400. As more chips were released into the market, the price came down. I've seen this chip sell recently between $88-$125 lately.

Related to the moral obligation part of the question. I think that's something you have to decide on yourself. I'm not sure what I would do. Part of me says you should say something, but another part of me says you don't need to unless someone asks. Another part of me says, maybe it doesn't matter. If I had 100 chips of something that is in great demand and previously only 16-30 were owned, but instead of flooding the market, I decided to sell only 2-4 a year. I think the prices, although woudln't sell at a premium, would still hold. Think of the diamond or oil markets, someone holds back production and the prices go up. If the chip is indeed rare, I would probably say something. It would probably cost me money, but I'd want someone to tell me if I were on the buying side instead of the selling side. Do unto others as you would want them to you.. or something like that? I figure I'll wait to see what I'd really do when I find 100 rare chips! Just my .02.