Don't be disheartened, Don. The Club is over 2500 strong. I believe there are many more who find chip collecting interesting, who choose not to join for whatever reason. Please don't judge the hobby or the Club by the rantings on this board.

Most posts on this board get less than 100 "hits." Controversial threads like this one generally get more, but understand, that does not count unique readers, only how many times a post was clicked on. If read a post, get in the middle of the thread, then go back to the starting post to read it again or check a detail, that counts as another hit. Even if you figure there are over 100 people who read this board regularly, far fewer than that actually post messages. Most of the people on this board are lurkers.

So, a lot of what you're reading here are the opinions of some of the most opinionated people in the Club. If you want to know what the Club is really all about, go to the convention, or any show - like the one coming up next week in Reno, or Rene's show that's the subject of this thread. This Club is populated by some of the nicest, friendliest, most interesting people I've ever known. Some of the best are here on this board, sharing information, trading chips and tall stories, and squabbling like any disfunctional family will . Enjoy!!!