[Gaming Ore]

Not sure where to begin, but...

It would seem that thousands of Bud Jones, Coin-in-Center (CIC) chips from the closed Playboy Casino, Atlantic City, NJ have been un-earthed at the site of the old Green Duck Corp. in Mississippi. (Details are still forth coming on this.)

The New Jersey Gaming Commission has been advised of this situation and has stated that they are now investigating. This is because NJ Gaming Regulations require that chips are always redeemable at face value, even for closed casinos! This "find" includes $500 chips and others.

Archie Black, aside from his affiliation with the CC&GTCC is recognized as one of the leading resources of Atlantic City Gaming collectibles (he authors the Atlantic City Price Guide) has posted this advisement on TheChipBoard:

"There are currently about 100 listings of PB chips on ebay. Thousands of these chips are obviously in the hands of several "finders" in Mississippi. It would appear that the entire PB bank has been unearthed. More chips are currently available than the market will be able to absorb. I now liken most (not all) of them to the availability of Jockey Club series of chips from Las Vegas.

My suggestion is to submit low-ball bids on the individiual PB chips you are interested in obtaining with the hopes that you will receive a "2nd chance" offer from one or more of the sellers after the bidding deadline is over. Hey, a dozen or more underbidders are eligible to receive "2nd chance" offers on the same chip. Don't bid up the price of these now-common chips and the sellers will be looking to dump them for whatever they can get. The sellers are not chip collectors.... and prices are still falling! It would appear that the current owners of these chips just happened to have opportune access to a hoard that has been un-earthed during a new community center construction activity on the site of the former Green Duck Corp. in Mississippi. Yes, some ebay bidders who are not aware of what is presently going on are going to get burned. Once again, thechipboard has proven to be an invaluable information resource for those who have taken advantage of it. Thanks to Greg Susong for its creation."

I anticipate follow-on reply posts to Archie's message, so he is a link to the thread: Tip of the day ... eBay Playboy chips

Now, being that this is ChipTalk and not TheChipBoard, I will add that the buying behaviors of large-set admirers will create a demand contrary to what Archie is advising to single chip buyers. And of course chip dealers are probably exerting an additional demand.

Not that I have any specific advice here, I'm just trying to be informative about this situation.

Jim (Gaming Ore) Follis

[Couga]

How does one submit a low ball bid without bidding the price up?

I don't get it... To be on the bidders list you have to submit a bid that will count. To count you have to bid an amount higher than the cost of the auction currently. To get on the list for a 2nd chance you need to bid the price up or am I missing something?

- Tom H.

[shanghai_sparky]

Originally Posted by Couga

How does one submit a low ball bid without bidding the price up?

My guess would be to send the seller an e-mail with your offer price and wait.

[Couga]

Originally Posted by shanghai_sparky

My guess would be to send the seller an e-mail with your offer price and wait.

That way you wouldn't be eligible for a "Second Chance Offer" and would not be covered by eBay at all. I realize that eBay doens't do much but having them on your side should something go wrong is a good thing.

[MSPatton]

Originally Posted by Gaming Ore

The New Jersey Gaming Commission has been advised of this situation and has stated that they are now investigating. This is because NJ Gaming Regulations require that chips are always redeemable at face value, even for closed casinos! This "find" includes $500 chips and others.

If this turns out to be the case with these would this fact not keep the value
up as those who know will speculate that they could redeem them?

I am a capitalist, as I am sure others are, and a 25% return on my money in the short term is acceptable to me

BTW, I know nothing about the regs, just intrepreting what I read into the statement

Michael

[littlebu]

I was thinking the same thing.

Originally Posted by MSPatton

If this turns out to be the case with these would this fact not keep the value
up as those who know will speculate that they could redeem them?

I am a capitalist, as I am sure others are, and a 25% return on my money in the short term is acceptable to me

BTW, I know nothing about the regs, just intrepreting what I read into the statement

Michael

[Gaming Ore]

I do not know the specifics, BUT, I'm fairly certain that New Jersey Gaming (and the State's treasury) is not going to give up money! There are many, many things possible here and the "investigation" should root that out.

Among the possibilities, thus far, is that the entire racks (primary and secondary, as in back-up set) were not actually destroyed to pulp, but were simply buried and have been un-earthed. As such, Gaming would probably declare those chips off-the-books, i.e., already redeemed and payment cannot be made a second time.

Another scenario would put these chips as over-runs that never went to the casino and got buried as a means of disposal. Again, Gaming would likely not make good on chips that were never in inventory.

Events like this have a tendency to alter regulations. It won't surprise me to see NJ Gaming declare all Playboy chips non-redeemable because they cant tell the difference between accounted for chips and out-standing (actual, un-redeemed) chips.

It's possible that NJ Gaming may make a move to confiscate all these chips and have them destroyed under supervision.

It would not surprise me to see all the eBay auctions suddenly cancelled (record them now!) based on NJ Gaming telling eBay that there is an active investigation to determine ownership.

I suspect that it will be a bit of a wild ride.

BTW-Not that it matters, but in my collection, I have one (1) Atlantic City Playboy $1 chip. So I don't have much of a vested interest in the outcome. I do however find it interesting.

J(GO)F

[abby99]

Not to throw a wet blanket on drooling capitalists, but in order to redeem these chips at face value, wouldn't there have to be a party that has both the legal obligation and the funds to redeem them?

[Gaming Ore]

Originally Posted by abby99

Not to throw a wet blanket on drooling capitalists, but in order to redeem these chips at face value, wouldn't there have to be a party that has both the legal obligation and the funds to redeem them?

Yes, to both statements. In New Jersey, a casino operation MUST put up funds, in advance, to be used for this purpose. The regulators and the casinos do an accounting of chips on-hand on a regular basis.

When we saw the pictures here (and elsewhere) of the Sands chip destruction (which WAS supervised) that was because of this funding requirement and the Sands Corp. wanted some money back. Although a bit more technical than this, the up-front money from when the Sands opened, was depleted by a corresponding amount when the chips were actually destroyed, leaving enough to cover what should then be outstanding chips. AGAIN, this is an overly simplified explanation.

Also, the regs only cover chips put into play. The Playboy back-up set, as I understand it, was never put into play and therefore is excluded from redemption.

J(GO)F

[Sir Flopalot]

Wow...I feel bad for collectors who paid dearly earlier for these until-now rare chips. Too bad the entire cache was not discovered by say a Spinetti's or ChipRoom and then sold off as playable sets...rahter than opporunistic sellers. I would love to have a playable set of these chips