New shipment of chips arrives at the Key West (1 Viewer)

The blue $1s are a somewhat limited edition chip. We made 1,707 of them. 1,325 were issued at $1 each. Right now, 382 remain. To make more would take another six months or more. It looks like we'll be doing 800 to 1,000 per year.

The new $20 is on the back burner for right now for a couple of reasons. First, there was -- and is -- no real agreement on what it should look like, creating the risk that I make 1,000 and end up selling maybe 200.

Second, we really do pay more for our chips than we charge. When we get the kind of rush we did around Christmas this year, we're scrambling to pay for new chips to replace the ones we sold, and need time to sell other things to make up the loss on chips.

So last year's profits -- originally slated to buy a bunch of new $20 chips -- were poured into the October order for new chips in other denominations. (David let us add to the order.) That's nearly 4,000 Key West chips which won't arrive until late March or early April. That's 40 racks of chips at a loss of $32 per rack, or just about what I would have spent on new $20s.

Reselling chips for less than their production cost is an incredible challenge. I've been able to get away with it for four years, and it's gotten more difficult every year. I can still do it, but I can't order 50,000 chips at a time just yet. The time needed to produce chips has increased since 2014, and anything new takes more time.

My main point is, Key Wests will stay available long-term. I can't wait to see where we are in year or two.
I love how transparent Dennis is.

The only other cool thing would be to have an inventory chart on the key west site to see how many of each denomination is still available ;)
 
The only other cool thing would be to have an inventory chart on the key west site to see how many of each denomination is still available ;)

I have a chart like that. It's really awesome.

Someday, when we've sold Key West chips to all the people who would ever want them, we'll be in the business of buying and selling and renting used Key Wests chips, like a stock market. People will be able to see the price to buy chips, and the price if they want to sell their chips back to the company or to other users of Key West.

The page to do this is already set up on the website, but it's hidden and locked.
 

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