My advice: especially as you are starting out, collect what is cheap-- there is a lot out there that you can pick up for not a lot of money. You will eventually find that the field is far too broad to collect everything (I imagine that just collecting a $1 chip from every casino and card room currently in the U.S. could easily run you into the multiple thousands of chips; and that's not counting obsolete chips from closed casinos or earlier issues from ones that are still open), so keeping things inexpensive at first will let you test the waters until you settle on something you like.

In my case I started off collecting $1 chips from Las Vegas, then Nevada, then I would collect a few from every place I visited in Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Louisiana, and Atlantic City (I used to travel quite a bit for work). My appetite gradually expanded to $20 chips (see my '$20 chip of the Day' posts for the last two months or so), and I found that my 400-500 $1s just sat around in boxes and I didn't really enjoy them that much. I ended up selling a lot of them off, though I do have a few that I keep for freebies when I occasionally hold contests on the board or welcome new members to the .

Eventually I decided that if I couldn't display it on the walls of my game room, I wouldn't collect it, which has helped me to focus my collecting pursuits somewhat (although that's still 400 chips or so ). Now I stick mostly to $20s from Nevada and Atlantic City, with the occasional foray into patriotic and/or bicentennial chips (although the ones I am missing now are on the pricier end of the scale).

Finally, if you are tempted to pay more than about $10 for a chip, asking here on the chip board will usually give you a good idea as to whether or not it's a good deal. If you find yourself wanting to do it on a regular basis, then I would definitely recommend one of the price guides suggested, if for no other reason than to let you know how far you can carry this sickness.

Good Luck,

Brent J. Jensen
R-8007
orbis non sufficit
(originally from Roy, now in SLC )