...and to the wonderful world of chip collecting!

You should collect whatever interests you and whatever "catches your eye"... I would think that collecting chips exclusively from mod-affiliated Chicago area clubs might be a somewhat specialized approach to your collection... whereas Vegas chips are much more plentiful and widely available... why not collect both?

The club maintains a lending library with a sizeable number of both chip books and history books related to our hobby... you should certainly take advantage of that resource.

Anyway, welcome to the hobby - have fun - and try to make it to our national convention in Vegas this June if you can!