June 22, 2010
Yearning
As my chipping friends descend upon Las Vegas once again for the Annual Collector's Convention, I wish them all safe travels, lots of new chips, and bring home some of Vegas' money!
June 09, 2010
Man...how I wish I could go!
Al Moe
Casino chip collectors will mob Las Vegas in June for a show featuring chips and other items. A single casino chip sold on eBay for $28,988.88
The 2010 edition of the CCGTCC chip collector’s convention hits Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 and runs through Saturday June 26. The convention is the highly anticipated annual get-together for thousands of casino and gaming memorabilia collectors. Doors open to the public on Thursday, June 24, at 10:00AM in the Grand Ballroom at the South Point Hotel/Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club (CCGTCC) has been around nearly 25-years, after starting with less than 20 members in 1987. Archie Black, a collector of casino chips from Atlantic City, New Jersey, started the club after contributing articles on New Jersey chips to Casino and Gaming Chips Magazine, based in Reno, Nevada.
Black and his small band of collectors held their first annual meeting at the American Numismatic Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1988. The club’s enthusiasm and growing membership led to it becoming a sub-section of the ANA, and the annual meeting became a full-blown convention in May of 1993, held at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This year’s event will be held at the South Point Casino, and traffic entering the Grand Ballroom is expected to top 10,000 persons.
Quarterly Chip Club Magazine
The CCGTCC offers an 80-page color magazine with its annual membership. The quarterly magazine features stories about the history of casinos, but because members collect all types of memorabilia from around the world, stories contain wonderful photos of chips, dice, ashtrays and matchbooks, tokens, casinos themselves and even hotel key- cards, postcards and swizzle sticks.
Early collectors of casino and poker chips like Phil Jensen, Bruce Landau, and Dale Seymour scoured flea markets, antique stores, and casinos themselves to find rare chips in the 1970’s. Seymour went on to publish the first catalogue and price guide: “Antique Gambling Chips.”
Chip Price Guides
Newer price guides like the “Chip Rack” and “The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide” are updated regularly to reflect fluctuations in prices, new issues, and rare finds.
$1 Chip Sets Record Price
Retiree Sandy Marbs from Florissant, Missouri listed a chip on eBay that she found nestled at the bottom of her jewelry box, a momento from a trip to Las Vegas in 1960. She started the bidding at $2.25 – but by the end of the auction, the rare $1 issue from the Showboat Vegas fetched a record $28,988.88
This year’s convention at the South Point Casino will include more than 50-dealer tables full of all types of casino collectibles for sale and trade to the general public. Educational seminars are a part of the convention this year with advice for organizing your collection, collecting gaming, collecting Caribbean casino chips, and a lecture on the book, “The Roots of Reno.”
Club members also enjoy special events like a blackjack and poker tournament, trade sessions, plus club rates in the hotel. Non-members will enjoy a veritable plethora of casino chips, dice, tokens, silver strikes, and displays of different casino advertising collectibles like matches and ashtrays. Bring your old chips to sell or have priced. Who knows what they might be worth? The dealers at the convention do!
October 14, 2009
One of the nicest guys you will never meet...
...Greg Susong, chip collector and webmaster of The Chipboard, passed away 10/9/09.
The world has too few good people in it, and now it has one less.
Here is the thread from the Chipboard.
R.I.P. Greg, you will most certainly be missed.
November 14, 2008
Just a brick in(on) the wall
Emma has her favorite chips hanging, the 100's have their spot above the fireplace. Just one more display to complete and I think I'm done.
My Derby chips, mmmmmmmmmmm
I picked a cabinet style display for this so I can add more chips, if any more are released. It holds 99 chips so I have a little room for expansion. I have 89 Derby chips and as far as I can tell, I have one of each that has been made including the Bronco Billy's Colorado $5, both Hard Rock NCV's, the MGM and NY NY NCV's, and even a cruise line's Triple Crown chip. I didn't bother with the other race related chips (Preakness, Belmont) or jockey chips...only Derby because in my opinion, it's the only race that matters!
The cabinet should arrive today and hopefully, I won't be playing "post it note" tag with the UPS driver like the last delivery.
I went with a cherry finish instead of black like the others. With all the chips in place, it should look quite nice.
October 23, 2008
Dead Weight
Hmmmm....went through my website, Jeff's Casino Chips, to see if I had any dead links.
Whoa.
Close to 40. No worries..they have been nuked so any of the 4 or so visitors I get per day will not be led astray.
The Web is a safer place now.
May 11, 2008
Better late than never
Well, after suffering through what I thought was going to be a "chip-less" Derby season, the Flamingo came through with a $50 piece quite similar to last year's $25. And like last year, they sneaked it in with no fan-fare.
Here it is, it's on the way, and thanks to Ricky Pushkin whose image I "borrowed" to post here.
March 02, 2008
Sometimes you have to be careful
I am constantly receiving emails regarding chips..I love it. The past week or so, I've been exchanging mails with a collector who is interested in Derby chips...one of my passions/specialties. After letting him know that I would not sell any of mine, I promised to keep an eye out for him in case something popped up.
It didn't take long for 2 chips on his "want" list to surface, so I mailed him quickly. A quick flurry of emails were fired back and forth, talking prices and so on. One of the chips was at a real nice opening bid and I was considering going for it but I noticed that it had 1 bid. I mailed him once more to inquire about his eBay handle. I let him know that I didn't want to compete with him if that was his bid...kind of an unwritten rule of mine not to try to snake a chip from someone I've been in contact with regarding that very chip.
It turns out that he indeed have the bid so I watched the action as a spectator.
He won the chip.
We then churned out a few more mails...he lives in L.A., close to Santa Anita, and Denny Crum was his father's high school B-ball coach! Small world isn't it?
January 20, 2008
So many chips, so few $$$
Wow.
eBay has a virtual buffet of $100 chips up right now. For a nice change, they are not all Dunes chips either. Lots of sweeties running anywhere from $10 to over $2500!
Alas...all I can do is watch and drool.
Picking up a dozen or so would go a long way toward filling up the Dansco binder I have for all my "Blacks", not that they are all black, most of them are.
Perhaps I'll lucky though...I've "stolen" chips before on eBay.
We'll just have to see.
January 06, 2008
I watched...nothing happened.
That sweet little $1 Christmas Tree came and went with no bids. Hopefully it will show up again with a much lower opening bid.
January 01, 2008
I'm watching
There is a $1 Christmas Tree Reno on eBay right now. I had one of those a few years ago but had to sell it. A tough but needed decision at the time. Only 4-7 of them are known to exist.
Actually, 2 of them are up for grabs...Doug Saito has a ChipChat auction taking place that also includes one of these little beauties.
One of my short term collecting goals was to replace the one I had. While my collecting efforts are leaning toward $100 chips, this black, small key clay masterpiece is certainly worthy of notice. However, the current eBay auction is in no danger of being won by me, as the opening bid is way too much for me to consider...well...ok, maybe I'll consider it, about the same way I would consider hot pokers to my eyes.
June 04, 2007
Sneaky
The Flamingo released a $25 Derby chip and didn't tell anybody! Apparently, it was a promotion on Derby and they were cashing them out to patrons.
Well, a fellow chipper, who I had helped locate some chips for a couple of years ago, emailed me to let me know of the chips and to inform me that he had one for me too!
Awesome!
It's now here, displayed with the rest of his buddies. What a great family of folk the chipping commnity is. Want a picture? LOL Sometime soon...I need to work on my Lvl 22 Warlock now.
November 27, 2006
Yah...I still collect chips
Heck, I actually have been picking up several new pieces while ignoring the Blog. Since my collecting focus is now aimed at $100 chips, here are a few recent additions:
$100 DeVille casino (never opened)
$100 Marina Casino
$100 Harolds Club
$100 Royal Nevada
My quest for Derby chips continues as I managed to pick up one of the Hard Rock NCV Derby chips, and it's very, very sweet. It cost $50 and a couple of nice chips, but well worth it to me.
Scans? Sometime. With the laptop being located in a different room than the scanner, things get a bit difficult but I do have a vacation coming soon (in December?!? Boy, you're in retail...how can that be?) so I'll get busy and scan those 100 or so new chips and give Mr Chipper.com a much needed update!
May 16, 2006
Chipping is good
Well d'uh...of course it is!
I've come under fire for my game play (addiction). Granted I have spent a lot of time playing the game, and it's something I enjoy. Due to the constant badgering about my play time, I've tried (and succeeded in) reducing the amount of time I'm online. To no avail though, even the mere viewing the forums creates tension...it's really quite childish. I made concessions and drastically cut my time down...to the point of playing at very odd hours so there would be no conflict with family plans.
So I'm taking a complete break from the game...for awhile anyway.
That brings me back to casino chips...real tangible stuff not mere pixels. My $100 Palms Smarty Jones chip is on the way along with a new binder for my Derby chips...finally I'll have them all in one place.
I've received several inquiries regarding chips lately and that has rekindled my interest. One collector sent a ton of scans with all kinds of chips from common traders to some very sweet pieces. We'll see what he has in mind.
I updated my website and will soon add all the new Derby chips...booyah!
February 24, 2005
Thanks Pete
I wrote an article for Pete that was published by PokerPages.com. While wondering through his website, OldVegasChips.com, last night, I came across the article and another that was written for him. Pete paid me a very nice compliment regarding the article...It's nice to know that some folks appreciate what you do. I receive several compliments on my website, Jeff's Casino Chips, and as a result receive a bunch of requests for information. That's what it is all about...the sharing of what you know.
Here's the link if you want to read it: