I kinda thought the premier premise of low-end meant more bang for the buck, won't spend more than $10 for chip deal. If that is indeed the case, the convention is your place to be! Many of the floor dealers have bargain bins, so many that you couldn't possibly look through every one of them and examine every chip (tho' DonL seems to do just that).

The only reason that I could think of for a low-end collector to not put at least one convention on their list of things to do at least once would be their only collecting interests are current stuff within close proximity to home.

....spending time with friends and meeting new friends also has great value, and that too is much of what the convention is about. I couldn't make it to this year's convention, and it looks like a scheduling conflict will mean that I'll be MIA again in 2005. I hate that, but I have no control over either schedules so I have to live with it.

....I went to the Palms show last month, not planning to buy anything, just wanted to see some friends and talk chips and other stuff. If you spend a little time in this hobby, you will start to plan vacations around the events because of the people involved. I have. I can't put a price on that....

I'll be at the Superbowl show, will see a bunch of friends, sweat the game, and might buy some cheap chips.

Bob