We describe the distribution of frequencies ordered by sample values in a random sample of size n from the two parameter GEM(a, ?) random discrete distribution on the positive integers. These frequencies are a (size-a)-biased random permutation of the sample frequencies in either ranked order, or in the order of appearance of values in the sampling process. This generalizes a well-known identity in distribution due to Donnelly and Tavaré [Adv. in Appl. Probab. 18 (1986) 1–19] for a = 0 to the case 0 = a < 1. This description extends to sampling from Gibbs(a) frequencies obtained by suitable conditioning of the GEM(a, ?) model, and yields a value-ordered version of the Chinese restaurant construction of GEM(a, ?) and Gibbs(a) frequencies in the more usual size-biased order of their appearance. The proofs are based on a general construction of a finite sample (X₁, . . ., X_n) from any random frequencies in size-biased order from the associated exchangeable random partition ₈ of N which they generate.