Collecting Tip: Get Organized and Stay That Way!!

One thing you hear seasoned chip collectors say again and again is that they wish they had been better organized from the very beginning.

When collectors start out, they often go through a flurry of buying as they seek to expand their collection quickly and explore areas of chips that they’re curious about. It doesn’t take long before most new collectors make their first accidental duplicate purchase because they’ve failed to organize their collection so they know what they have and what they don’t have.

But even before you get to that point, as a new collector you may be asking yourself how you’re going to store these fascinating casino chips you’ve discovered. You’ll find a wide range of opinions about the best types of holders and storage methods, but here are a few bits of information to consider.

CHIP HOLDERS

Many storage methods use an individual holder for each chip, which is then placed in some other holder, such as a binder or chip storage box. Chip holders come in several different types and each has its own advantages.

Vinyl pocket holders, also referred to as “flips” have clear pocket to slip the chip into and a flap that folds over that can either be solid or contain another pocket. The vinyl that these flips are made of may or may not contain PVC, which can be destructive to some types of chips. Some chips, particularly red colors, can “bleed”into the vinyl. There are also non-PVC vinyl flips, but they often become brittle and will crack where the flap folds over.

There are also cardboard flips with mylar plastic windows that can be folded to encase a chip and then stapled or taped shut. These will take up a little more storage space for each chip, but may preserve your chips better than the vinyl flips.

Another chip holder option is a hard plastic round case often called an air-tite. These provide the ultimate protection for your chips, but will cost a little more.

BINDERS & BOXES

Once you’ve decided on what type of individual chip holder to use, you need to figure out what storage method works best for you. Some collectors keep all of their chips in chip storage boxes, or portable cases, where they stand on their edges. Others want to be able to flip through pages of their chips, so they use binders with specially designed pages that hold the individual chip holders.

Since the individual chip holders are different sizes, they must be paired with binder pages designed to hold them. And, there are even binders specially designed for casino chips that do not require individual chip holders—the chips slip directly into the pockets in the binder pages and are a tight enough fit that they won’t fall out.

How you organize your chips is a matter of personal preference. Some arrange them alphabetically by casino, while others like to group geographical areas together.

As your collection grows and you obtain some traders, you may want to have a separate storage place for them, making it easier to take them to trading sessions with other collectors.

Another storage option is to keep some or all of your chips on display. Specially designed frames can hold your prized possessions and show them off to the world. Cassidy Frames and Tiny Treasures are just a couple of sources for these frames and the chip-holding inserts.

Many of the items described here can be obtained from C.T. Rodgers at C.T. Coins, who has an extensive catalog he will send you for free. Just drop him an e-mail and ask for it.

KEEPING TRACK

If I can offer new collectors one piece of advice about storing their collection, it would be to start keeping records of your chips right from the start. Trying to go back and catalog a large collection is difficult and daunting, whereas keeping track of each individual chip purchase as it's made is easy to manage.

Some collectors use an Excel or Lotus spreadsheet to list each of their chips and whatever details they find important. Others use software specially designed to keep track of collections. Terry Shaffer’s Happy Chipper website offers Collectors Assistant software by Carlisle Development. It’s a flexible database program that already contains fields for many of the details a collector would want to track, including an image of both sides of the chip. Terry even helps jumpstart your database by providing a preloaded database of over 4,000 chips, with scanned images for over 3,000 of those.

Of course the amount of detail you keep track of is up to the individual chipper. I know some chippers who keep track of dates of purchase or trade, price paid and who they obtained a chip from. Personally, I don’t have that kind of time, nor the desire to keep track of such details. But, everybody’s different.

One tool that's very useful when tracking your collection are the individual identification numbers used by the authors of various chip guides. Not every guide includes identification numbers, but you should get in the habit of using them when available.

In addition to tracking chips you own, you may want to take the next step and create a want list of chips you're seeking to add to your collection. Such a list can be helpful when trading with other chippers. It can also help you stay focused when you visit your first chip show and become overwhelmed with the thousands of chips available for purchase.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tyrus Rex, Inc. has an excellent reference section with more information about storage of chips as part of an extensive FAQ for new collectors.