~~~ the rarest of the rare from the World over has been built via trading with very, very little buying.

It wasn't uncommon for me to fill a large padded mailer with Nevada chips and tokens and send it off to another collector I learned about via a casino owner or employee to introduce myself.

My first face-to-facs chip trade was at the 1991 ANA Convention in Orlando, when I was sitting at Henry's table and he said to me... "Come with me I want to introduce you to another Florida chip collector; Mark Lighterman." All I had with me other than what was for sale was a small box with 16 traders. Mark and I exchanged greetings while I was taking my box of 16 chips out of my shoulder bag as Mark reached over behind him to grab a box which was exactly the same size and, at the same time we both said "I only have 16 traders." Though we didn't make any trades, I sure learned a lot from that moment, onward and, I, as others whom I traded with thereafter, passed on to each other whatever we learned and it never stopped... Trades have always been a very big part of this hobby and, of course with our convention as well and every effort should be made to see that the organized trade sessions continue as they always have...