My Ashtray Story

By Steve Cutler

Twenty years ago I was very involved with building up the Casino Legends Hall of Fame collection. I was always in search for very rare or interesting artifacts to display in the Hall of Fame. I can honestly say “I was obsessed”. If you had something I wanted, I literally couldn’t sleep at night as my only thought was “How can I acquire it?”. I am sure many serious collectors can relate to this. This story is about one of those items. A very close friend and former business partner had just made an incredible find and he was sharing it with me. He was a very well known person in the casino collectable world at the time and is now one of the stars on the very successful T.V. show, Storage Wars, his name is Rene Nezhoda. The find was an ashtray from the Shamrock Hotel, a small hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas (1951-1953). Other than a handful of chips not much has shown up from this early Las Vegas casino, needless to say I was excited at the possibility of purchasing this ultra rare ashtray. I don’t believe I ever paid more than $100 for an ashtray up to this point. That being said I figured this very rare ashtray would fall into that price range. The ashtray had everything going for it “Bar and Casino” and a four digit telephone number. I had to have this early Vegas rarity. After attempting to not show my excitement I finally asked Rene “How much will you take for it”. Rene was smart and he knew what he had. He told me he already had an offer from a very well known collector but would sell it to me for the same price, after all I was a mentor to him. I knew the number was going to be high because I knew the collector he was referring to and he always paid top dollar. He finally gave me the price after making me sit down. The price was $1500, thank God I was seated as I had never spent that much on an ashtray. I thought about it for a nano second and paid him. It has been over twenty years and I have yet to see this ashtray in any collection. It is still the most I have ever paid for an ashtray and is one of my prized possessions. I have a few “One known to exist” ashtrays from early Las Vegas and this may be my favorite. Whenever I speak to Rene he always reminds me of the great deal he gave me on this super rare ashtray.

Thanks Steve for sharing. Can't wait to see what other great items you have.

Paul Schaffer
CCA Social Media Director.