our hobby versus coin, card & stamp collecting and the differences are a partial reason for our limited membership. I started collecting coins as a kid with my mom. We didn't have much money, but even then she could afford to go to the bank and get rolls of nickels, dimes & pennies -- giving me hours of sifting through & picking out ones that I either didn't have or were in better shape. She took the rest back & it only cost what I kept. And cards (back then) were cheap and it was fun & easy to collect cards of your favorite players or teams. Not really so with casino chips...not readily available & not really cheap. And you have the fundamentalists that view anything associated with gambling as a sin, so you can rule them out. While it's a lot of fun, chip collecting just isn't a cheap hobby & really not one that someone gets into until they're at least of gambling age and at a point in their life where they've got some extra cash to participate.

Steve B