The best chips you will get because you will remember the story and you are paying face value. When I started to seriously collect it was about 8 years ago and I had this rule that I would play craps at each casino starting with the same 100.00 bill and when I had at least a 6.00 profit I would chose the best 1.00 and 5.00 chip and and cash the rest in and off to the next property. It worked very well but I did get in serious trouble at Imperial Palace and lost with every roll of the dice and was down to 18.00 and built it back to 110.00 but it took hours and I wanted to win and run. Not there but I finally made it out and I earned those chips. When I was at Mirage I hit my profit on the first pass and quickly picked up my chips and ran off to the cage. Guess I went a little fast and I was pulled over by security but they didnt identify themselves as such but the fellow was well dressed in a custom made suit that fit his rather large muscles in. He was from South Africa and asked me where I was from, I told him Santa Barbara. He then asked if I lived here and I said "no" but he would go on to ask me that 2 or 3 more times. I think he thought I may have grabbed guests chips or I was acting odd or differently than others. I also noticed that two very large men in suits were in the background reading newspapers probably awaiting a nod to take me in but he finally let me go. After that I walked very causally to each casino cage to cash in and didnt speed walk after that 15 minute delay. Long story short I started at the Excalibur and made it all the way down to startdust(walking) and cross the street and made it back up grabbing a 1.00 and 5.00 from each place for free but I was beat and the sun was coming up. It took about 10 hours or more and my two front pockets were bulging and when I went to my room I still had that 100.00 !! It was fun but I would never do it again and decided after that night that it was ok to just go to a cage and buy them but it does feel good to look at my chip frame and say thats not my money sitting there!!! You have alot of fun ahead of you but speacialze dont generalize, you live in Nevada so maybe collect Nevada chips and skip Indian Casinos and riverboats, Its easier to acquire a deeper centralized collection than go too diverse. Start slow maybe 1.00 chips only or 1's
and 5's. I collect the house chips and dont get too involved in the limited editions such as all the Haloweens and xmas chips that everyone comes out with. Goodluck in your quest there is alot of fun ahead of you!! When you decide to join the Club tell them that John Reynolds R-6920 sent you(in the application) and I will mail you a free starter chip!! John