What I did...
I brought a bunch on local/ AZ chips - fractional to $5 for trading. Trade sessions are GREAT and I picked up a tremendous lot of new stuff at the trade sessions. I found that 5-10 of anything I could afford to bring to be a good quantity!

I had "higher priced" chips (chips that were worth more than face... my extra Harrah's obsoletes/ sunburst chips for example) in a separate binder and showed them/ offered them when dealing with others looking to trade "better chips" of comparable value.

LOTS of chips for sale by dealers... and no trading on convention floor - although rooms, bars, hallways, elevators were open-season

"Last chance" trade session is a MUST do... I did my best trading there

I also posted a "pre-convention" trade offer for those wanting small quantities of chips from the same location... like 5 x $1 Bucky's chips to use as traders the rest of the year. I made these offers simple... just bring me whatever local chips they had available and my own trade list got a great, cheap, postage-free boost. Arranging some trades in advance took some of the guesswork out of what to bring

Hope this helps a little?