For the first 10 years I was collecting there were several chip shows a year, in addition to the Club convention in Las Vegas. Bill Akeman, Rene Nezhoda, Jim Munding, Charlie Rodgers did shows... and both Howdy Herz and Doug Saito did regular chip auctions. If you took advantage of them all, you could look for good chips every few weeks. And there were the antique malls and flea markets if you had the time... still out there, but the better stuff now seems to be skimmed off first and sent to the on-line auctions.

Today, only Jim Munding and Charlie Rodgers do chips shows, and only Doug Saito does regular auctions. But we do have eBay... a 24 hour a day chip show .

I try to hit every chip show, every auction and haven't missed a Club convention yet. The chips are out there, but you do have to invest some time and travel looking for them, something that's not always obvious to a new collector who maybe started collecting current chips and LE's. But if the hobby clicks with you, you'll want to find the better (older) chips at some point and you can still find them. "The journey is the reward", as Steve Jobs used to tell the Apple people. Have fun!