It might help and would get you some better advice if you told us a little more about your situation and interests. For example, Do you go to casinos much, What area of the country do you live in,ie: Mississippi River, Chicago, AC and Connecticut, Nevada etc. You do not have to be specific but there are alot of general areas that have several casinos. I for example am near Chicago. Within a fair distance are casinos in WI, IN, MI and several right here around the CHI area. There are a lot of people here who have some very specific and valuable experience with certain regions and types of casinos.

Next I would recommend starting with places that you play and pick up a few chips when you are there. You might start with $1 or $2.50 denominations. I have seen a few at .25 but not many. If you acquire extras you can then get involved in some of the many trading groups(RRs) or Round Robins. The way they work as I understand is that they set up some criteria. It might be Riverboats Only, or All LV. Or, there will be a denomination say $1 or $5. They compile a list of all those people who express interest and everyone sends a chip to everyone else. If say there are 15 people on the list you will need to be prepared to send out 14 chips to other people.(you delete your own name from your list). If the denomination is $1 then you send a $1 chip to each person and each person will send one to you. Sounds like a great way to get started. I have been tempted to get involved but do not get out to the casinos here and don't have the traders right now. I am hoping to make a trip and get into one of these.

I got started just picking up a chip or two from every place that I played. All during trips to LV. Then I started looking at eBay and noticed pages and pages of chips for sale. I picked up a bunch. Some of the dealers on eBay have what is called NIS or New Issue Services. They then started to send email every time a new chip was released and I have been buying most of my chips that way. A couple of important notes here. Don't think you have to have everything. You will go broke . Collect only what will have some significance to you and bring you pleasure. Souveniers of where you have played, chips that have designs that you are attracted to, chips that have some history that you appreciate, Favorite Sports etc. If all your chips have some personal or sentimental value to you, you will never regret buying them. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy your new hobby. Good luck and happy chipping,

Bill Schelhas