Token prices show wide variations. You will see tokens priced both above and below the values listed here. Arcade tokens in general have both small supply and small demand (relative to coins). This means that small changes in supply or demand can have a great impact on prices. The suggested values shown here are only meant to be a rough guide. I am not familiar with the scarcities of each variety, and some may well be worth extra. I have reported eBay auction prices where possible, but most of these are only single auctions, so it is hard to know whether these results reflect the wider market.
"Generic" (no city) brass Chuck E. Cheese tokens are mostly quite common, and of only nominal value. The mintages of most of these tokens are quite high for arcade tokens. Worth about $0.25 each, less in quantity (specific varieties may be worth more, for example the first token from 1977 seems to be fairly rare.) Recent dates of the "adult head" variety seem to be relatively hard to find, but I haven't seen any sell, so I don't know if the scarcity is enough to affect values.
"Generic" (no city) copper Chuck E. Cheese tokens seem to be somewhat scarcer than the brass tokens. "Generic" white metal tokens seem to be even scarcer than copper. In 1997 the following quantities of tokens were made:
brass: 27,000,000
copper: 574,000
white metal: 40,000
I do not know if these ratios also hold for other years, but these ratios are generally consistent with the frequency that I have seen the different metals. I do not know what the values of the copper and white metal tokens should be, but they should be worth somewhat more than the brass tokens. [Note: in some (all?) CEC arcades, the copper tokens are used as "manager" tokens.]
Chuck E. Cheese tokens with cities are highly desirable and harder to find, although not exactly rare. I think a "reasonable" market price for most of these is at least $1.00, several have sold on eBay in the $2-$5 range. (10/00) Latest eBay prices seem to be going up, I may have to revise these numbers higher!
I haven't seen enough of the cities tokens to tell which are more desireable
than others, but:
"Kansas City" seems to be scarcer than most
"Santa Anna, CA" is very rare (2 known, possibly only 30 existing)
The Chuck E. Cheese "Super Token" seems to be scarce and highly desirable. When I first started keeping track I saw a couple sell for $6-$7, but the ones I've seen more recently have gone for $20-$50..
I have no basis for estimating value for the large plastic "token", but it does not seem to be very common. However, since it isn't really a "token" many people may choose not in include it in their collections.
A couple of the Canadian "A La Grace De La Pizza" tokens have sold on eBay in the $3-$8 range. This seems a bit high to me, as these seem a bit more common than the "cities" tokens. (I have also seen some large lots of these tokens sell on eBay)
The "Charlie Cheese" token seems to be quite rare, one sold on eBay recently for $9.00, and I know of some others which sold privately for $7.50 each. Update! A couple of these recently sold on eBay for over $20 each!
The undated "No Cash Value" tokens also seem quite scarce, though they do show up fairly regularly. Based on the number of these that I've seen, I'd value them at a few dollars each, similar to the "cities" tokens.
Where to get Chuck E. Cheese Tokens
An obvious place is at Chuck E. Cheese arcades. You will have to pay about $0.25 each, and take potluck (unless you know someone who works there). Also, some CEC arcades (franchises?) use a mix of tokens, including Showbiz and other arcades, as well as CEC tokens.
CEC tokens can be found in most "bulk lots" of tokens. You will also get a lot of non-CEC tokens, and a lot of duplicates, but the per-token cost will be low.
Large lots of CEC tokens show up frequently on eBay. Most of these are recent types without much variety. Scarcer CEC tokens and all-different lots show up regularly, but less frequently.
WCS sells bulk CEC tokens, both generic and with cities. As of 7/20/06, they advertised the following prices:
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