I absolutely agree, Carlos!

After a while even the stamp collecting catalogs stopped listing the "wallpaper," beginning with the "dunes countries" (little middle east sheikdoms that issued stamps purely for the purpose of selling them to collectors elsewhere).

While I would not presume to suggest to anyone what they should or should not collect, with very few exceptions I choose not to collect these meaningless things. For that very reason, I've made sure at every Club convention that I put into play the live chip issued by the host casino, which after the first couple of years were never stocked on tables. I can therefore say that every single club chip has actually been used for the purpose for which gaming chips are intended.

In fairness, though, we should acknowledge that commemorative chips have attracted quite a few collectors to the hobby. We should also recognize that casinos issue such chips not just for established chip collectors, but as marketing tools to promote events or the casinos themselves, and as revenue-producers.

While the revenue is often insignificant (as I suspect is the case with the casinos that turn out "commemoratives" like M&M's), there are other situations (the Caesars Palace 25th anniversary chip, for example) in which the revenue produced by the collection of limited edition chips has been impressive.

Ultimately, I think Gene hit the nail on the head when, wearing his gaming industry hat, he said, "We'll stop producing them when you stop collecting them!"

By the way, as a former philatelist and stamp club official myself, I don't think the "wallpaper" was the greatest factor involved in the decline of the hobby. IMHO, it was the inability of older collectors to attract young people to the hobby. The Sesame Street/MTV/instant-gratification generation doesn't have the patience or inclination to sit and sort, soak, and research stamps. It's neither fast enough nor exciting enough for them.

I suspect there's a lesson there for us too!

Michael