I love collecting.I love hobbies in general and have been a collector since I was a young boy whether it be comics/stamps/coins/matchbooks/swizzle sticks/dinky toys/baseball cards/hockey cards...whatever.
I stopped collecting baseball and hockey cards when dealers started to take advantage of new collectors by offering "chase" cards which were supposed to be rare and a "great investment" when in reality,they were worth only pennies...rare only to the dealers who sold them.I saw the writing on the wall for those hobbies.
To me a hobby should be two things:1)fun...something that one can find fairly regularly to keep the interest level up,and 2)affordable.
The reason I collect LE's is for both of the above reasons.I am not so much interested in the investment part of the hobby although I do think that the future is not as bad for LE's as some other collectors may feel.
I would love to be able to go after old chips which are worth hundreds and thousands of dollars but I just can't afford it.This is why I chose certain LE's to collect.Think about it:with prices on old chips increasing yearly,who,except the rich will be able to afford them 5 -10 -20 years down the road? It is ok for a few old time collectors who perhaps have the money and the stock to be able to collect the classics,but many of us,who do not have the contacts or money just can't.
LE's however,will always be around and available every year at their respective times and new collectors will at least be able to collect some kind of chip.
LE's are nice to collect because there is always a dated start to a series and people like to collect dates:Check out coins...do you think people would collect coins if they weren't dated? I know that if,for example,I needed a 1998 Hard Rock Halloween chip,it would be simple to find because it is dated,whereas,if I needed a certain...say...Sahara $5.00 chip,I would have to describe the insert,the mold,the color,the edition # etc.
I understand that there is a limit to LE's and many which are being manufactured are a joke,but I do believe that certain ones will have their day down the road.Halloween collectors are all over the place as are Christmas and Valentine collectors.People collect cars,rabbits,frogs,horses,celebrities etc.Hey...it is a hobby for them and not an investment,BUT...please remember...almost every collectible will go up in value in the long run.Remember,it was only a short time ago that room keys were considered junk,but look at how they have slowly climbed in price?
I remember a few years ago at Starbucks when they first started to issue gift cards,I thought to myself,hmmmm...this could be an interesting hobby since I had heard that they were going to be releasing every few months,so I grabbed a few(actually about 5-10 at a time at every Starbucks I went to).Friends of mine laughed because I had this huge whack of what they thought were useless bits of plastic which made me grab even more and then I started to pick up cards from Target when I went to the US for weekend shopping jaunts.
Well....one year ago I sold 43 Starbucks cards featuring a Flamingo on it from San Diego at an average cost of $45.00 EACH and 15 of my Walt Whitman NATIONS cards for an average of $62 each!!!Target cards which were free,were going for up to $25 each for the early ones.
What I am trying to say is....collect for fun and enjoyment and if you collect the right things,then all will work out in the end.