I have to agree with Andy. I've always been attracted to collecting what other collectors generally did not have or seek. Not just chips... but with coins and stamps as well. When I was a very young man in my late teens-early 20's, I collected stamps. Oh, I had the usual run of the mill stuff, but my pride and joy was my complete duck stamp plate single collection and "back of the book" stamps such as revenues, special delivery, air mails, and postage dues.

When I collected coins, later on in my adult life, I specialized in bust half dollars by die variety that were struck between 1807 and 1836. My philosophy at the time was that if it could be gotten by the roll, I didn't want it.

While everyone has their own collecting preferences... (and I don't put anybody else's collecting interest down)... I've personally always liked the challenge of completing a series. To my way of thinking, an accumulation of common stuff that everbody else has, was not appealing to me. For those collectors who enjoy accumulating inexpensive chips at face value .... do your own thing that YOU receive pleasure doing. It's no one elses business what one person chooses to collect over another person's preferences. To discover a new shoe chip from Atlantic City .... such as was brought to my attention just this past weekend, is exciting to me. I'm happy with just a color photocopy of chips that I don't have in my personal collection. Sure, I would rather have the actual chip... but when the owner won't give it up, there's no sense in getting obsessed about it.