I started collecting chips in 1998. I got my first casino experience after I moved to Southern Idaho and was a scant 3 hours away from Jackpot, Nevada. On about my 4th or 5th trip there, I built up the nerve to sit down at a blackjack table at the Horseshu. I'm sure I made every wrong move from what "the book" would tell me in later years, but as a memento I kept the nicest looking $1 chip I got in the stack. Once I realized that Cactus Pete's across the street had their own $1 chip, and Barton's Casino 93 also had their own $1 chip, I came home with a very modest start to my collection. Three whole chips!!

My first trip to Las Vegas came in December 1999. And when I realized all THOSE casinos also had different $1 chips, well, I had to get those chips too! A few years later, I learned I wasn't the only one who collected casino chips. And some of those Las Vegas casinos had different chips from years earlier.

Well, that was it. Realizing I was in genuine need of having a hobby, I decided my hobby would be to collect $1 casino chips.

A search of the internet introduced me to the likes of Rich Hanover and his "World Famous Las Vegas Casino Chip Museum", Andy Hughes' Nevada Casino Chips, Josh's Dice702, David Spragg's Marlow Casino Chips, and, of course, Notre Dame's Chuck Smorse with The Other General's new chip service. I needed binders for these chips I was amassing, so Dave and Debbie Harber's Chips in the Mail provided a great Christmas gift two years straight.

I decided to really get serious and go to my first convention in 2008, the last year it was at The Riviera. Terry Shaffer sold me a beautiful $1 Silver Palace chip with Lady Liberty in the inlay in what he called "The best deal of the entire convention!" I had just bought his Collector's Assistant Plus program a few months earlier, and he very patiently answered every question I had about his software program. Before the day was over, I realized all these people who I had bought chips over the internet from and read their price books were amazingly accessible and really friendly. Sadly, it was the only time I ever had a chance to meet the late Greg Susong. I can't really say I met him. It was more recognizing his face and saying "Hi Greg!" as he passed me. "Well, Hi there" he answered back with a smile I would never forget. I would get the chance to email him back & forth (again, wonderfully accessible) and add a few scans to his brand new "Nevada Ones" website that I checked by the hour!!

This collecting casino chips really had quite a community that I was learning to enjoy. I had collected baseball cards as a teenager, but the chance of getting the biggest name in the card collecting hobby (at that time it was the late great Barry Halper) to answer a letter was remote at best. I even tried my hand at collecting albums when I was in radio, and found that the top name in that hobby, Mr. Joel Whitburn, had Casey Kasem waiting for him on line one, so there was no chance he was EVER going to answer a letter I would send him about which copy of The White Album was worth more money. But people like James Campiglia, Greg Susong, Ricky Pushkin, Ross Poppel, Michael Spinetti & Gene Trimble (to name a very very few) would not only answer emails, but would do so within a few hours, and not once ever treated what had to be a completely ridiculous question with anything but enthusiasm.

So here I am, 14 years later, and on the salary of a director and master control operator at a TV station in Boise, ID, I am but NINE chips away from 1,000 different chips. Not all of them are $1 chips (I do have five that are either snappers or $5) and not all of them are from Nevada (my best friend gave me two chips he kept from when he was stationed in Curacao, Terry Shaffer gave me a chip from the Holland Club in Toledo and a friend from work brought home a $1 chip from Holland America Line when he and his wife celebrated an anniversary with a cruise). I don't have that many super valuable chips, but I have saved up from time to time so I could buy a rare dead mint chip that suddenly came up for sale. Along the way, I can honestly say I have had the time of my life.

So thank you. Everybody. From collectors I consider close personal friends to those I've butted heads with on The Chip Board. I have nothing but a tremendous amount of respect for all of you. I am very passionate about collecting casino chips, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everybody in this hobby. From people I talk with often to others I've never met or even talked to. From the Archie Blacks in this hobby who laid the groundwork of this hobby to the latest person who just joined this hobby. I have enjoyed every day I've been a chip collector, and I'm looking forward to what the next 1,000 chips will bring. The stories, the memories, the laughs, the history. Thank you for letting me be a part of this hobby.

I'm looking forward in the coming days and weeks to reaching chip #1000. I'm going to need to build my savings back up for the next few months since having back surgery last July pretty much emptied my savings account and eliminated any chance of hitting #1000 in 2012. But maybe I can splurge for chip #1,000.

So, 991 down, 9 to go!!