Hi Bill,

I can only speak for myself in answering your question:
I have been a CC>CC member for almost ten years, the reasons are multiple and direct.

Nos. 1,2,&3 - The people, The people, The people! You will meet the finest, most friendliest, most passionate, most helpful and caring people you have ever met. They will become friends for LIFE and that doesn't happen as easily to people as they get older but it happens all the time in this club. You see many of them once a year and can't wait to see them. Some of them you talk to on the phone or email every week - you may not even know their faces yet but you want to give them a hug when you meet them. That brings me to #4.

#4. The convention. We get together once a year for an annual convention that lasts the shortest 3 or 4 days you ever spent. It is filled with trading sessions that go on into the wee hours of the morning. Banquets where you are so involved in what is going on you don't care how good or bad the food is. A bourse (sales and trading floor) filled with dealers and hobbyists and interesting tables filled with items. Whether you collect the items or not you are fascinated with all of the energy and passion that people put into their tables at convention and their collecting habits. There are exhibits that people spend weeks and months of their lives putting together to show off. There are informative speakers to talk and inform you so that you might become better at what and how you collect or develop another sideline of something you want to collect along with your main passion -like certain chips to go with your silver strikes, perhaps. We all can go on and on about convention.

#5. The auction that takes place at convention which you can donate pieces to whether you are present at convention or not. It is a way of auctioning off the pieces you think are better pieces and seeing what prices they bring. It serves you by bringing you some money (it can be mailed to you or you can pick the money up right there after the auction) and it serves the hobby because if you are right and these pieces are better and hard to get and more sought after, then they go on record as having gone for higher prices at the club auction. It is a way of establishing the true market and offering people opportunities to acquire truely harder to get items.

#6. The newsletter that comes out quarterly for the club and every two months for the sub chapter of the Silver Strikers Chapter of CC>CC. Especially for the Silver strikers these bimonthly pieces of information keep you current on what has happened in releases of silver strikes and what is already in the works and expected to happen soon. If you are going to collect you need and want this information - it comes with membership. The main club newsletter is like a magazine that comes off the stands at a magazine store, has articles and advertisements (I read these as much as I read the articles) on chips, tokens, dice, ashtrays, room keys, slot club cards, people, places, history, and on and on. It talks about the many reasons why we all collect.

I put in my two cents Bill, if I knew how to do it I would post the form itself or website that you can go to (try putting www.CC>CC.com and see if it takes you to the club website).

I hope this helped and didn't bore you.

Please email me if you want to talk further or send me your phone number and we can talk.

Best Regards,
Avram