I used to collect pencils from golf courses, those stubby
little things they give you to mark your scorecard that have the name of the
course printed on them. At first I saved pencils only from courses I had
actually played, basically as souvenirs.
But then I started having friends bring me pencils from
courses they played in other towns or states, and any time I drove past a golf
course from which I had no pencil, I’d stop in and ask for one. I faxed or
e-mailed scores of courses asking them to send me a pencil or two. Through the
miracle of the Internet I found other collectors to trade with, and I created a
web page (that was mentioned in Sports Illustrated magazine) to promote the
hobby. I became quite the Grand Poobah of golf course pencil collecting. I had
pencils from over 2,600 golf courses from all over the country and the world.
And then one day I was tired of it, so I sold the whole
bunch to a fellow collector and was glad to be done.
I have a collection of casino chips. I save one or two chips from every casino I gamble at, basically as souvenirs.
Friends sometimes offer
to bring me a chip from some casino they plan to visit, but I politely decline;
or if they do give me one, I accept it with thanks but keep it separate from
the others, limiting my collection to chips from casinos I have actually been to and gambled at.
You see, I learned my lesson from the pencils.
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