5/8/2008 - VEGAS COLLECTIBLES: CHIPS, ASHTRAYS, AND SHOWER CAPS?
I got a laugh the other day reading one of the Internet news groups that I belong to. The subject was "shower caps from Las Vegas Casinos," and one of the members of the news group confessed that his wife had brought home a shower cap from each of a dozen or more casinos over the years. Now they wondered, what should we do with our shower cap collection?
It didn't take but a few posts before another news group member suggested putting them on eBay. And why not? People collect everything from Las Vegas-- casino chips, ashtrays, swizzle sticks, shot glasses, picture frames from the casinos, so why not shower caps?
You might not know this, but there was a museum of McDonalds Memorabilia here in So Cal that I visited a few years ago for a story on KCAL when I was doing the news, and one of the most valuable artifacts from the Golden Arches of many years ago was a strip of handiwipes that McDonalds used to give to customers to clean their hands. If I recall, that strip of three or four handiwipes (I don't remember exactly) was worth something like $1,500. After all, who ever thought (decades ago) to keep a strip of handiwipes?
Today, many casinos have stopped using coins in slot machines. Instead, it is ticket in (cash in) and ticket out. And you know what? Those handiwipes from the casinos have disappeared! Sure, you might find handiwipes still offered -- if you ask for them -- but the boxes or bowls of casino handiwipes that used to be at the change booths or cashiers have just about all disappeared. The last time I was in Vegas, I couldn't find handwipes with the name of the casino anymore. They were all "generic" handiwipes with labels such as "winner" printed on them. No more Caesars handiwipes. How sad? These might be collectible some day.
You can say the same thing about shower caps, couldn't you? Who would think that someday in the future shower caps from Mandalay Bay or Caesars Palace or Luxur might be worth something to some collector? Are you laughing? Did you know that a collection of Pez dispensers was the genesis for eBay? And now I hear that collectors are starting to pay big bucks for those little comics that surrounded pieces of bubble gum.
One of the news group members pointed out that Luxor (the hotel shaped like a pyramid) used to package their shower caps in a box shaped like a pyramid. I think that's neat. And that reminded me that when New York New York Hotel and Casino first opened it packaged its toiletries in little buildings, and when you set the little buildings next to each other in a small plastic rack in the bathroom you got a skyline of the buildings that make up NYNY on the Vegas Strip. I'm sorry I didn't take one of those home.
Some other news group members suggested the shower caps could be used at home-- as salad bowl covers, or to cover your shoes before you pack them in a suitcase, or as shower caps in your home bathroom. Imagine that?
Perhaps a lot of people have been taking their shower caps home with them, and asking housekeeping for "extras" -- which is why my wife doesn't find a shower cap in the hotel bathrooms anymore and has to call housekeeping to have some delivered. Is there a run on shower caps?
I did take home from NYNY a collection of glass beer mugs several years ago. A dozen of them, to be exact. I redeemed my casino points for the mugs probably around 1999. Recently I went back to NYNY and found that the mugs were no longer offered as "prizes," so I guess I have a collectible now. The mugs have never been used; I keep them in a cabinet and one day I hope to hit a jackpot with these on eBay (LOL).
I am sorry that about a year ago I didn't take home a one dollar metal token from Caesars Palace. Caesars has replaced its one dollar tokens with one dollar casino chips. Instead of the heavy metal token that resembled a silver dollar, Caesars now has one dollar blue chips that are made out of clay or plastic or some combination of materials.
I am also sorry that I didn't keep more of those "silver strikes" that I won from slot machines. Each ten dollar silver strike, or gaming token, has six-tenths of an ounce of silver in them, and with the price of silver up a ten dollar silver strike is worth much more than its face value -- and slowly the casinos are eliminating this prize.
Oh, I have one other collectible -- an original set of tableware from a Pan Am flight back in the early 1980's. The tableware includes a fork and spoon and a metal knife. Yep, a real metal knife to cut the real meat that you used to get on a plane flight. Ahh, the good old days.
Good shopping! Alan Mendelson
