It happens. They used to be fairly cheap. I bought my last one for $10 at the convention. That was after not finding a single one there for three years. Some dealers have no idea what us degenerates will pay. If it would have been an auction, it would have broke 100-150 (IMO)
Rumors of a Mapes hoard are all around the chip world but I’ve never found them, unless it was Spinettis who is now depleted.
The only chips I have seen in great quantities were the $5’s. The $25’s being the next most prominent. The $1’s are still hard to find in quantity, but I have been told they were once so common dealers but them in their junk bins at shows. Still, if you put all the known playable sets together we may account for 1000 of them.
Im not sure the set owners here could combine for more than a rack of $100’s. I spoke to a dealer in Vegas who said he had a box of them come into his shop years ago but he didn’t buy them. I believe he may be mistaking a box of Mapes Money Tree $100’s but he swore they were just Mapes.
I think more will come out eventually. I know Mike Spinettis had a killer set he showed me on his phone a few years ago. Not sure what will happen to them since he passed, but I’d assume they will or have been sold off.
Its not an impossible task to find a set, just usually a long, frustrating, expensive one
I know someone here is working on a nice lot and hopefully they can close the deal to bring some more of these beauties to the community.
Mapes were my passion ever since I saw Starmans set in the CT days. Good luck on the search.
