Very well said, John. I like collecting Reno area chips... LEs, current house chips and obsoletes. I enjoy the old chips for the history they represent, I enjoy good looking chips more than ugly chips, even if the ugly chip is older and more expensive, and I enjoy good looking chips that are rare and valuable the most. To work hard and pay the price to acquire a rare chip, only to see that rarity vanish is a disappointment. But sometimes chips surface from the darndest sources. It's the breaks of the game. What really hurts is to learn that there were those in this hobby that knew the chip was not rare, and weren't sharing that information, for personal gain.

The nice thing about collecting LEs and current house chips purchased from local casinos at face, the value is guaranteed as long as the casino is open. The same is definitely NOT true of beanie babies, baseball cards or pogs.