IMHO, the first thing you should do is buy a catalog. The second thing you should do is join the Silver Strikers club. There are lots of valuable resources in the club.

1) For Nevada, I would recommend Bill Cohenour's catalog, but others here have their favorites.

2) Understand the composition of the silver strikes by composition and weight so you don't overpay.

3) Set a strategy on what you want to collect. For example, my focus is on Reno and Las Vegas strikes, and there are specific casinos that I collect

Strikes are available on eBay, but are available more cheaply on other web sites. Pawn shops are the "worst" places to buy because of the high markup.

Just my .02. Happy collecting,

Mike Jeung
SS-1388