As a kid I had gone to Vegas in the 70s with my parents and sometimes with my sister. In 1993 I started going to Vegas regularly with my wife. I think in 1995 I put a Harrah's LE chip in my pocket. Over the next year or so maybe another LE or two. In 1997 I was in an Antique Center in San Juan Capistrano and saw a 5 dollar chip that looked old and bought it for face. It was Caesar on the bed. A short time later in the same Antique Center I found a 5 dollar Marina chip in the same case. I started looking for chips I knew I had and other items from Vegas that I had taken back in the 70's

I started to research these chips and came across The Chip Board. My first post was in May 1998. I started becoming friendly with people on the board and Michael Knapp had a once a week chat room on AOL that we even had auctions in. (Andy got a Keno chip from you then) Early on I met the O' Neal's at Bill Akimen's store and would meet Gene at the Fiesta where we just traded stack for stack.

I started going to Bob Mera's store on the Boardwalk in AC and he always would ask me to join the club. I hadn't met many AC collectors yet, but had won and auction from Bruce Landau on E Bay and the following Sunday was a meeting in AC. I told him hold the chips and I will pick them up then. I went to my first meeting and joined both the AC club and the National club as well.

Some dates may be out of sequence, but that is best how I remember it.