Originally Posted by
Alan Mendelson
About six or seven years ago I did a news story on the McDonalds museum here in Southern California. Yes, a museum that featured all sorts of memorabilia of the Golden Arches including just about every toy that came in a kids meal, cups, napkins, wrappers, boxes, even display cases and menu boards and chairs and seats -- it was all there.
But when I asked the Museum curator what the most expensive item there was he pointed to an original strip of McDonalds "wet naps" or what we call pre-moistened towelettes.
They were so valuable because no one bothered to save them. People saved cups and toys and boxes and signs but no one saved the towelettes. If I recall, and this as I said six or seven years ago, that strip of towelettes was valued at more than a thousand dollars.
So when the casinos went to ticket-in ticket-out machines I immediately thought that there would someday be coin buckets and towelettes that would be valuable. But everybody saves the coin buckets. Did you save some of the towelettes with the casino names on them? I didn't. And then I started to wonder about the slot gloves with the casino names on them. Anybody bother to save them?
Could slot gloves emblazoned with casino names and logos be the future collectibles jackpot?
How about the old metal coins? Silver strikes which used to drop out of 25-cent slot machines already are collectible because of their silver content. Some casinos even change the design on their room key cards and if you get a room key card with a "rare print" that might even be collectible in the future.
I think a very collectible Vegas item might be a marker signed by Pete Rose, or one signed by Bill Bennett. Did Frank Sinatra or Sammy Davis ever have to sign a marker?
I have plenty of markers that I signed and were returned by Caesars after I paid them off. I'd gladly sell one to anyone who thinks it's collectible.