Think long term too. You'll find new collectors as time goes on that will trade for "whatever" just to get some chips in inventory so there's no harm in having commonly found chips to trade. If you find an opportunity to acquire a lot of chips (or a chip lot!) at a good price, you may want to do that. I've got a Wa. cardroom chip sitting here, about 45 $1's and the same in $5's plus I bought about 3 of the same Christy & Jones LV classics that I can eventually trade off for similarly valued chips I'm sure. I buy 2 Hard Rock chips at a time as the market stays strong on these and new chippers will be looking for these too but thats more of a sales gig. I gather regional fractionals for trade because that's something I like to collect, also like Scott Blackburn, I like red chips so I'll grab $5's too. Try to get together with a regional chapter or group for the easiest trading and try to make the trade sessions at the convention or any shows in your area.

Another thing that you'll find in the hobby too, if someone needs one of your chips to fill a hole in his collection, shoot, trade him for anything even if you can't use his chip, you'll eventually pass it along and he'll have a chip he needed!