I have been on this board for about 8 or 9 years and I have never been to a convention. In many years, though, we have made our own fun. If everyone starts scanning chips, we can do daily chip shows, or 2. Someone picks a theme or two and announces it/them on the board. The next day a thread is started for each theme and everyone who wants posts scans that fit that theme. We have had themes on colors, denominations, molds, some element on the chip such as buildings, illegals, favorites, ugliest, favorite (with explanations), whatever. There are a ton of great looking common and recent chips, so it shouldn't matter if someone is a newbie or doesn't have any valuable chips in their collection. We can offer a bunch of contests and trade offers. And, of course, a bunch of people are not monitoring ebay as closely as they usually do, so bargains can be found in some years.

So, don't feel bad. It's up to us to keep the fun going.

Michael Siskin