Gene,

I only started collecting about a year about, but I can give you some advice from my experience:

Best Books: I didn’t really read any intro books, but I learned a LOT from reading things on this board. Keep up with messages and you will gain the insight of people with YEARS of experience. You may also want to check out as many Chip related sites as you can find. If you decide to specialize in Nevada chips, THE book you want to get is The Chip Rack. If you specialize in Atlantic City the book you want is Black’s Catalog of Chips. You can have hundreds of dollars by knowing what the going values of chips are. To get a feeling for what a particular chip is going for, you may want to go to E-Bay and under the Casino Chips section, do a search under closed auctions. That way you can see what is selling and at what price.

New chips: I have always had success in LV by going to a Cashier cage, telling them you want to get chips for a collection, the newer the better, and being specific as to what you want ($1, $5, etc). Some people also get good service if they tip.

There have been whole threads on cleaning chips. I think there is a ‘search the archives’ option on this board, you want to try looking up the word ‘clean’ or cleaning.

People store chips in lots of ways (in pages in binders, chip racks, shoeboxes, in frames). The best advice I would say is that however you do it, keep them out of the sun light for long amounts of time. Sun light has a tendency to fade everything it touches, and chips are no exception.

I would also suggest you join the CCTGCC (http://www.ccgtcc.com/). It is the main chip collector club and when you join you get a quarterly magazine that details new chips coming out, trends in the hobby, etc.

If you want specific recommendations as to dealers and places to buy, please e-mail me and I can give you details off line.

Enjoy this great hobby!

- Bob