I agree with many of the posts - the economy and postal rates have had a major impact.

I started by collecting multiple chips from the casinos I visited ($1 chips). I offered those in trade, knowing they were equivalent in value to $1 chips from everywhere else. I built up quite a collection that way. I have faded away from that, mainly because I reached that stage where I realized I couldn't collect everything, and started to think about specializing.

The Chip Board is still very entertaining to me. I learn a lot about illegals, and I almost always look at the chips needing IDs even though I have no expertise to speak of. There are fewer limited editions being issued, so there are fewer posts of that nature.