Had to add my thoughts to this topic, as a person who has played for the Reno airport BLUES and the new 4 in 1 from Caesars, I can tell you I had to go through 40 of the old Caesars strikes before the first 4 in 1 droped and the average per strikes was around $21, so cashing in the extras for $10 each to keep playing just raised the average cost of the 4 in 1 up. Same thing happens at the airport, except they tend to fill the machine if it jams or times out on a strike payout (they figure the more stikes in the hopper the less jaming.) At the airport I had to win 53 strikes to get 4 blues and then I didn't have the complete set, it gave me 2 R's and no E, worked a trade of the E. Also at both Caesars and the airport a lot of the strikes go home with the non collector and makes the number that collectors get lower than the true mintage. Also I think there are more collectors or dealers who play in Vegas for strikes than at Tahoe or Reno.
Walt