I would hope that any suggestions we offer in regard to changes to the layout or appearance of the Slot Guide Price Guide will not be taken badly by Steve Wells or Pat Lamb. People, we are all extremely grateful to you for producing the Guide and the level of information in the book increased from the first edition to the second edition by leaps and bounds. We all want the Guide to be the best tool for collectors that it could be, and the sharing of our knowledge is how to do it. We offer suggestions for ways to change the Guide only to see if you would also think that our suggestions would be a good idea.

The two suggestion here are both pretty interesting to me. It is a hassle to flip back and forth from Nevada to Riverboat to Indian sections to find a card. When they pick up a card, some collectors are going to be unsure if it is a racetrack, indian or riverboat casino, and an alphabetical listing would save a lot of page flipping. (Of course, all that page flipping will wear out your pages and you will then need to order another copy of... Pat and Steve, is this planned future sales for you??) In the matter of giving numbers to cards, that also might be more practical. I too fear that your "1st" - "2nd" release numbers that can change between editions as you get further information will mean someone talking about a "3rd release from Quackers Casino" may be looking at Guide Edition One and I could have Guide Edition Two open, and not realize the fellow is writing me about a totally different card! We could design a three letter/two or three digit tag for each card with the letters being the state (NV = Nevada, WI = Wisconsin, as in Post Office use) and the first letter of the casino name. This would mean all cards for the Aladdin, Arizona Charlies, and Anthony's would be NVA001-NVA999. Sahara, Sam's Town, Sands, San Remo and other Nevada places starting in "S" would be designated NVS001-NVS999. Even the most crowded letters like "S" would have 999 "spaces" to assign them. (I would hate to design a system which would quickly have to be messed up when you ran out of space!) If a card is multi-state you could code it in a MU prefix, since there is no MU state (like Harrahs cards could be MUH001- whatever. I like the three letter idea because it allows any code to be tracked down quickly without knowing what the card is. If I mention a WIH004 card and forget to say more, you could flip to the Wisconsin pages, and the Ho-Chunk or Hole in the Wall Casino lisings to see what I was talking about. A listing of NVF056 would at least give the idea that it was a Nevada card starting with "F", so you only have to check a small portion of the Nevada section to pin it down. The Donley book had numbers, but you had to talk about the Casino name and the four digits she gave the card. A system like this, once set up and put in place (probably not until the 3rd edition, if Pat & Steve find it favorable) would give all collectors a set designation for their cards that would be a standard to keep everybody on the same wavelength. What do people think? More important, what do you think, Pat & Steve? I would be willing to help set it up.

There are prices to pay in the collecting universe whenever a hobby progresses, and one of those is the fact that when a collectable has a price guide you clear up some of the mysteries of what you are looking for, but you trade off the "innocence" of practically all cards being worth the same. I guess I will always recall the wonder of years back when you would trade any card you had for any card you didn't. When just the discovery of another person who shared you interest in something was a jewel. (I was around many years ago when the Comic Book Price Guide was started by Bob Overstreet, and you look in there, my name is in the thank you's for all the stuff I told him after the first one came out. So I have been through the "birth" of a Price Guide series once before.)