I am about to enter my 44th year of collecting chips with over 17,000 different. Many in the hobby credit the Four Queens with starting the LE craze in late 1995 with a Super Bowl chip that said "Super Bowl XXIX" on it. I was there and was in on the design. This chip was not aimed at the hobby but the riot to get it, told us something.

In the next few years the Club came close to doubling in size and I among others credit the LE craze for making people aware of the hobby and the Club. I can name a number of Club members in the Club today that 1st collected FQ's LE's in those early days.

LE's are still and will continue to make people aware of the hobby. I get emails every week from people wanting Palms LE's they have seen in advertisments or on Ebay. They always get a reply that includes information about the Club. The growth and the maintaining of the membership can be directy related to LE's.

Some of these new collectors change course and get into the older chips. I can name a few of them also. The ones that do change course and I have seen some sell thier LE collections on this BB, always have the option to not lose money by cashing them at the casino, just in case they can't sell them for a profit.

There is no comparison to baseball cards or stamps and can never be. LE's are LIMITED EDITIONS and there are not millions of them made. I started collecting coins in the 1950's so I know a little about that also.

Palms chips are aimed at a crossover market. They are used as a marketing tool. The percentage of Palms LE's that are taken by the crossover market is actually real close to the percentage of chips that collectors take. I know nothing about the HR but I'm betting the numbers are close to the same.

At the recent Palms Chip show 1,500 people came through the door. No, I do not know the percentage of Club members but I am betting it was less than 50%. Thats 750 possible new members.

This crossover advertising makes people aware of our hobby and our club.

Everyone needs to collect what they like and let other people collect what they like.

If you are collecting for profit you could be disappointed when the time comes to sell no matter what it was you were collecting. I have chips I have seen sell from $25 to $1,000 and back to $25 over the years. Its the nature of a hobby.

The hobby is alive and growing. LE's are one reason for this growth.