Collecting Tip: Find Your Focus

Many chip collectors start out like I did, adding anything that even remotely looked like a casino chip to their collections. And, there's nothing wrong with starting out that way.

New collectors ask the same question over and over: "What should I collect?" The answer is of course, "Collect what you like". However, most new collectors don't really know what they like yet. They're intrigued by the idea of having a collection of chips, but don't know enough about what makes chips different to have decided what aspect of chip collecting appeals to them.

So for those collectors unable to say what they "like" yet, being open to collecting any chip makes some sense. It makes it easy to quickly increase the size of your collection if you're not particular about where a chip came from or how rare it is. You can trade chips with almost anybody once you have a few traders, because chances are good that most people you trade with will have something you don't already have.

But once you've been collecting for a while, your chip appetite may change. Or, it may not. I can only speak for what happened to me.

Some collectors never lose the thrill of adding a chip they don't already have and never narrow their focus. They collect any denomination from any location and remain perfectly happy following that pattern.

As for me, most of my gaming experience has been in Las Vegas and eventually I began to realize that I didn't feel the same way about chips from locations outside Nevada. I had chips from all over the country, but I found myself paying more attention to the Nevada chips.

Nevada seemed to me to be the mecca for chip collectors, with rare chips from Las Vegas being those most desired. And, I found that once I began to focus on Nevada, I didn't feel like I was filling my collection with chips just for the sake of making it bigger. At this point, I'm even considering shrinking my collection to only include chips I really feel are among the best that I have. More on that in a future post.

As your chip collecting experience grows, your chip appetite may zero in on some other part of the country or world, or on a certain denomination, mold, manufacturer, inlay, color, casino, subject matter, etc. We all have different tastes and bring different experiences to this hobby, and as a result we don't all find the same chips exciting.

My advice to new and moderately new collectors is to find the chips that spark your interest the most and give you a feeling of excitement when you look at them. Then, let your your chip acquisitions take you in the direction those chips lead you.