CASINO KEEPSAKES: Vintage items have value

What looks like junk could be treasure

Gamblers who think casino players club cards, hotel room keys and old gaming chips are worthless should think again, according to collector Andy Hughes. The Henderson resident said many a local junk drawer may be filled with precious treasures.

Hughes said obsolete gaming chips with $1 or $5 surface prices can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Even antique ashtrays and vintage Las Vegas matchbooks or swizzle sticks and glassware are highly collectible.

The Tropicana played host to collectors from around the world as they sold and traded casino collectibles during the Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club convention last month.

Bill Judge, president of the Southern Nevada chapter of the club, said people collect casino memorabilia because they're interested in the history of Las Vegas. Judge manned a booth filled with glassware, ashtrays, gaming chips, dice and gaming tokens. The merchandise wasn't marked, but Judge said he knew the prices for every item.

"The prices are all in my head," he said.

Judge said the old ashtrays are among the hottest collectibles. Prices range from a few dollars to over $300. The collector's favorites are from out-of-the-way venues like the Railroad Pass on the road to Boulder City or the El Rey Club in Searchlight.

"A lot of people have ashtrays from the big places like the Sands or the Dunes, but the ones from small towns are different," Judge said.

The club president said pristine antique ashtrays are rare since they are fragile and in most cases they were "borrowed" from the hotels. He said it's a shame modern casinos have generic ashtrays instead of the custom painted and uniquely shaped models from the past.

Hughes prefers obsolete $5 Nevada gaming chips. His best buy was a $5 Desert Inn chip found by a collector at a flea market for $5. Hughes paid $500 for the chip a few years ago. He said he gets offers to buy it all the time.

"The last offer was $7,500, which I turned down," he said.

Ohio resident Jim Steffner's story is even more dramatic. The collector said he bought a $5 Hacienda chip at a flea market. He kept the chip for a year before he discovered it was the only known chip of its kind with a value in the stratosphere. In 2001, he sold the chip on eBay for $15,000, the highest markup anyone in the collector's club has ever heard of.

Southwest Las Vegas resident Steve Cutler's collection doesn't hold too many $15,000 chips, but the collector does claim to own more casino memorabilia than anyone in town. Cutler's collection fills his home and the Tropicana's Casino Legends Hall of Fame, a site he said is one of the most visited museums in Southern Nevada.

Cutler moved to Las Vegas in 1953. Ever since then, he's had a love for all things gaming. His specialty is gaming documents such as old casino checks made out to well-known performers.

"The Holy Grail of collectibles to me is the casino gaming license. For every place, there's only one," he said.

While most collectors will never reach the level Cutler has gone to, Hughes said anyone can collect casino memorabilia, especially if they live in Nevada. When a casino opens up, changes names or shuts down, the chips surrounding those changes take on added value. Special run chips such as the rock star chips put out by the Hard Rock Casino are also worth extra. But Hughes said the real finds are the chips and collectibles people don't even realize they have.

"People have them just sitting there and they have no idea what they are worth. They'll have them in the back of a drawer somewhere or in a closet," he said. "A gentleman was cleaning a closet and found a bag there he'd forgotten about. He opened it and he had different chips from years ago. One was a $5 Sahara chip, a first issue with a picture of a sphinx on it. He ended up selling it for $10,000."

Hughes said collectors can find out the values of chips and other collectibles in a guide called The Chip Rack. Collectors also gather on the Internet to exchange information at Web sites such as www.thechipboard.com. Sites like Hughes's Web site at www.NevadaCasinoChips.com also include prices, items for sale and links to more information.

Information about membership in the Nevada Chapter of the Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club also is available at at www.NevadaCasinoChips.com in the links section.


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