I have a similiar, more chip related story. This all happened before I even collected chips but I did collect slot machines back then. In 1992 I was out of work and was looking around at an antique store here in TN. I saw something incredible - a huge old floor model slot machine. This was even more incredible than I expected. The machine was a 1908(?) Oom Paul machine which has a single rotating color wheel to pick the winners. The story gets even better. This machine was the first electric slot machine and still had the batteries in it, along with a few buffalo nickles! The batteries only powered the lights but was still a neat addition. Oh, did I mention that it also had the original manufaturers shipping crate with it? And to make it better there was a second, almost identical machine with it - a 1908 Chicago Ridge. Both of these machines were found in a buildings basement either in Nashville or Memphis and the building was scheduled for demolition. The dealer wanted $10K each for these machines which was about what I figured they were worth. I even got to work on the machines for about 10 hours (picking up a little extra cash) and when I was done they both worked like they did when new. Tell me that the fun isn't in the hunt! I just wish I could have been the guy at that old building getting those two machines.