Al,

My answer to both of your questions is collect what makes you happy, don't worry about what chips other people collect.

If you are using chip collecting as an investment you are making a mistake. There are much safer and better paying investments out there. Sure its hard to beat the return on buying a $25 Hagar chip for face, but lets face it there are very few opportunities to do that.

The return on my chip investment is the happiness collecting brings me.