Jim, you've asked a simple question that has a long, involved answer! Here are some thoughts.

First question to ask yourself is why you want to collect casino chips. Are you looking for a pleasurable hobby with variety and the ability to research the history of the clubs whose chips you collect? Or are you looking to chip collecting as an investment?

The answer's different, depending on how you want to approach collecting. The primary aid to your collection and your development as a collector will be membership in the Casino Chips & Gaming Token Collectors Club. It's the main source of information for collectors, and the club conducts the largest casino collectibles show in the world at its annual convention in Las Vegas.

You're right that you should do your homework before spending a lot of money with dealers or collectors. As with any other collectible, not everything is apparent simply by looking at chips, and it's easy to overspend or to pass up a great chip if you don't really have an idea of value. There are several excellent books to get you started, but again how and what you want to collect is the key.

A very good and fun collection can be established merely by picking up chips at face value at casinos. It's how most of us started, in fact.

One thing you might want to consider early on is specializing. There's just way too much material out there to have everything, or to have a decent representative collection from every possible geographical area.

Some collectors collect only $1 chips; others only $5 chips. Some collect only from Atlantic City, or only Tribal casinos, or only California card rooms, or only Colorado or only Nevada. Some collect foreign chips or cruise ship chips or Deadwood, SD or riverboat chips. Without a specialization though, it will be tough to build a good collection. And it will be tough to know which books to buy to help your collection!

Give us an idea what you'd like to do and I'll be glad to follow up. I'm sure many other collectors here will offer their opinions as well. Every one will be just as valid as the others.

You'll find chippers to be a fairly close-knit group of extremely helpful people. I'm sure you'll enjoy the hobby!

Michael