Starting a Historic Vegas Strip Chip Collection? (2 Viewers)

[YepImNaked]

Good morning! I'm not saying I've officially decided to start a focused collection of historic casino chips, but if I did, here's how I'd go about it (yes, I've been in this bed recovering from my surgery for way too long and I have so much time on my hands). Please offer advice or critiques to my method.

My goal would be to collect $1 and $5 chips from casinos that operated on the Las Vegas Strip between 1940 and 1980. I see that as the 'golden era' of gambling, and it is the era most aesthetically appealing to me.

Here’s the rough approach I would take:​

• Focus: Strip casinos only—ideally the classic properties that helped define Vegas: Sands, Stardust, Dunes, Desert Inn, Flamingo, Riviera, Tropicana, Sahara, etc.
• Denominations: Just $1 and $5 chips to keep it manageable, both in size and budget.
• Condition: I’m looking for clean inlays and relatively sharp edges, but not necessarily mint. I want personality, not necessarily perfection.
• Display: I would organize either by opening year or alphabetical by casino, probably in binder pages. Definitely open to suggestions on that front. How do you display your collection?

Some starting points I’d use:​

• The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide – already ordered a copy (I know the pricing will be outdated, but it was cheap and perhaps it would provide a good visual guide to get me started
• Browsing auctions and forums to learn about current pricing and spotting fakes
• Watching eBay, especially for Sands, Flamingo, and Stardust pieces (these would be foundational pieces for the collection) and perhaps hitting some conventions in the future
• Asking experienced collectors for resources/advice

Anyway, that would be my methodology if I decide to start a singles collection. Please let me know if I'm way off on anything here. If any of you have advice, must-have resources, or ideas for tracking down authentic pieces from this timeframe, I’d love to see what you have to say.

 

[JWC]

A few questions:
- is it one $1 and $5 from each casino, or one of each issue $1 and $5 from each casino? They will impact your budget.
- Are you collecting both center inlay and hot stamp chips? Are you going to be happy spending a thousand on a hot stamp chips?
- What is your per chip budget?
- I recommend going to the next convention to see what is our there and available.

Good luck!

John

 

[allforcharity]

You can probably get most of these from Spinetti's.

 

[AlbinoDragon]

During the pandemic I started collecting Las Vegas $1 chips since 1976. Many of those are quite common and easy to find, at a few dollars each.

There are some that the price guides and eBay auctions have at $300 and $400 that fit the definition of what I'm trying to do and collect, but I can't bring myself to spend anywhere near that much on an older Vegas one.

I'm also nowhere near what would be considered a "complete" collection for my target definition. I've resigned myself to the knowledge that I'll never get close to that, mostly because I can't bring myself to spend what it would take to do so.

Expand this example to your target... earlier and a bit more geographically limited. There are plenty of absolutely gorgeous chips from the strip casinos in that span of time. They get asking prices that go with those looks and the historically significant casinos they are from. There are going to be chips you would like in that collection that either don't exist or exist in such small quantities that they aren't going to make it to your collection. Be prepared to have plenty of gaps that either can't or you can't bring yourself to fill.


I have one downtown casino that has been my collecting focus for just about as long as I have been collecting single chips. There are chips that I don't expect I'll ever see. There have been chips and other items from the casino that I didn't have the budget to get when I had the chance.


It's good to have a focus and a target when collecting otherwise it becomes open-ended both in time and in money expended. Take a little time to consider the magnitude of what you are undertaking here. The chip guide:

https://www.chipguide.com/

...is a good visual reference of what each casino has used for their chips.

The Campiglia and Wells book is nice for the images of select chips, but the prices there are woefully out of date. The Chip rack:

http://www.thechiprack.com/

...is better as it's updated roughly annually, but like any guide, it's exactly that... a guide. I have seen chips sell for a lot more than the prices there and sell for surprisingly less than what is in the book. For anything even vaguely common, I look at recent eBay prices.


Good luck with the project. If you follow through with even a portion of your goal, it will be a remarkable collection!

 

[drdr]

Cool. I like the idea of displaying on a wall. Makes the collect more "useful" and easily viewable. Part of the fun could be rearranging occasionally. Good luck. Post updates.

 

[YepImNaked]

A few questions:
- is it one $1 and $5 from each casino, or one of each issue $1 and $5 from each casino? They will impact your budget.
- Are you collecting both center inlay and hot stamp chips? Are you going to be happy spending a thousand on a hot stamp chips?
- What is your per chip budget?
- I recommend going to the next convention to see what is our there and available.

Good luck!

John

Thanks for the reply, John!
- I’m thinking my favorite $1 and $5 from each casino for starters and go from there
- I will probably stick to center inlay chips, as I prefer them
- budget isn’t something I’ve decided on yet, but I know that will be a big factor on my pace of collecting
- Thanks for the tip! I would love to check one out.

 

[YepImNaked]

You can probably get most of these from Spinetti's.

I’ll check them out. Thanks for the lead!

 

[YepImNaked]

During the pandemic I started collecting Las Vegas $1 chips since 1976. Many of those are quite common and easy to find, at a few dollars each.

There are some that the price guides and eBay auctions have at $300 and $400 that fit the definition of what I'm trying to do and collect, but I can't bring myself to spend anywhere near that much on an older Vegas one.

I'm also nowhere near what would be considered a "complete" collection for my target definition. I've resigned myself to the knowledge that I'll never get close to that, mostly because I can't bring myself to spend what it would take to do so.

Expand this example to your target... earlier and a bit more geographically limited. There are plenty of absolutely gorgeous chips from the strip casinos in that span of time. They get asking prices that go with those looks and the historically significant casinos they are from. There are going to be chips you would like in that collection that either don't exist or exist in such small quantities that they aren't going to make it to your collection. Be prepared to have plenty of gaps that either can't or you can't bring yourself to fill.


I have one downtown casino that has been my collecting focus for just about as long as I have been collecting single chips. There are chips that I don't expect I'll ever see. There have been chips and other items from the casino that I didn't have the budget to get when I had the chance.


It's good to have a focus and a target when collecting otherwise it becomes open-ended both in time and in money expended. Take a little time to consider the magnitude of what you are undertaking here. The chip guide:

https://www.chipguide.com/

...is a good visual reference of what each casino has used for their chips.

The Campiglia and Wells book is nice for the images of select chips, but the prices there are woefully out of date. The Chip rack:

http://www.thechiprack.com/

...is better as it's updated roughly annually, but like any guide, it's exactly that... a guide. I have seen chips sell for a lot more than the prices there and sell for surprisingly less than what is in the book. For anything even vaguely common, I look at recent eBay prices.


Good luck with the project. If you follow through with even a portion of your goal, it will be a remarkable collection!

Thank you very much for such a thorough reply! You’ve given me a lot to think about. I think I’ll keep my collection very narrow at first, and have to accept some gaps, at least initially. I think I can be content to enjoy the hunt and research carefully my next additions.

How do you store/display your collection? It must be quite impressive!

Also, thank you for the resources! Added them to my bookmark.

 

[YepImNaked]

Cool. I like the idea of displaying on a wall. Makes the collect more "useful" and easily viewable. Part of the fun could be rearranging occasionally. Good luck. Post updates.

I will probably start a new thread once I get started and better organized. Thank you!

 

[AlbinoDragon]

Thank you very much for such a thorough reply! You’ve given me a lot to think about. I think I’ll keep my collection very narrow at first, and have to accept some gaps, at least initially. I think I can be content to enjoy the hunt and research carefully my next additions.

How do you store/display your collection? It must be quite impressive!

Also, thank you for the resources! Added them to my bookmark.

The Vegas $1 are just stored in covered racks (there's over 300 of them at this point). My favorites are in Air-Tite capsules in display cases (this is just the Horseshoe and WSOP chips before the recent flood of Rio WSOP chips... I have three other cases like this that are all fully populated):

These are in an inside room that doesn't get much sun, but I'm planning on putting some UV blocking film on the plexiglass on the case simply because I see how the UV from the sun has damaged things in the other rooms.

The ones that aren't on "display" are in capsules in Air-Tite binders on a bookshelf.

It's smart to be thinking about storage and display before things get too far along. It's been amazing to see how I went from one storage binder to two display cases to not having enough wall space for the cases and having to "overflow" to additional binders. It's an addictive hobby.

 

[YepImNaked]

The Vegas $1 are just stored in covered racks (there's over 300 of them at this point). My favorites are in Air-Tite capsules in display cases (this is just the Horseshoe and WSOP chips before the recent flood of Rio WSOP chips... I have three other cases like this that are all fully populated):

View attachment 1505420

These are in an inside room that doesn't get much sun, but I'm planning on putting some UV blocking film on the plexiglass on the case simply because I see how the UV from the sun has damaged things in the other rooms.

The ones that aren't on "display" are in capsules in Air-Tite binders on a bookshelf.

It's smart to be thinking about storage and display before things get too far along. It's been amazing to see how I went from one storage binder to two display cases to not having enough wall space for the cases and having to "overflow" to additional binders. It's an addictive hobby.

Wow! That looks great. You’ve got some really nice WSOP stuff. Sounds like a very impressive collection. Where did you find these wall displays?

I’m trying to figure out a good way to store and display, while also having some way of keeping relevant historical notes about the chip/casino.

 

[AlbinoDragon]

Wow! That looks great. You’ve got some really nice WSOP stuff. Sounds like a very impressive collection. Where did you find these wall displays?

I’m trying to figure out a good way to store and display, while also having some way of keeping relevant historical notes about the chip/casino.

Unfortunately, the gentleman who was making the wall displays retired from the business maybe 15 years ago.

A lot of folks around here use ones from Michael's. If you know someone around you who does woodwork, you might be able to have something made for you that's more like the ones I have. It's cabinetry work, so a specialized skill set. If you want other items that are relevant to the chips to display with the chips, that might need something a bit more custom as well.