So, tonight I attended a fundraising poker tournament for Jeremy Renner's https://rennervationfoundation.org. I was going to play poker, but they sold out. I showed up and offered my dealer services, but they had plenty of dealers at the time. I asked if I could still get a ticket to go in, so I could participate in the auction, the bingo thing, and other fundraising activities. The staff at the front didn't seem that interested in selling me a ticket, but after I insisted that I really did want to contribute to the organization, they sold me a $100 generic entry.
Five minutes after I walk in, I see a fellow dealer (Shilo from the Atlantis) who is running this tournament and ask her if she needs extra dealers.
She says "no, we're full up", and gently blows me off. No problem. I wander off to the auction items to see what things I want to overpay for. Five more minutes later, she's excitedly waving at me and says, "Put a shirt on and get to table 17". I deal for two hours, missing out on food and beverages that I paid $100 for. I never got to play bingo, and I have no idea if one of my raffle tickets that I paid $75 for were drawn. After two hours, they let me go and I wander over to the "wine pull" where, for $25, you get to choose a mystery bag with a bottle in it. Turns out I chose a $130 bottle of wine. My wife will be excited.
I'm hanging around, chatting with one of the bartenders that I work with at the GSR, and chatting up the MC who happens to own a comedy store in Los Angeles, and I remember that I have a Plaza $10 silver strike in my fanny pack that I was going to use as a card cover. I walk up to the MC and tell her to see what she can get for it. I suggest she start at $1000 and go down if no takers. She starts at $500 and gets an immediate bid. I'm shocked. The bidding makes it all the way up to $800 for a silver strike with probably $30 of silver in it.
Even though I made the donation anonymously, the MC rats me out and the winner comes over to me afterwards. I'm thinking he's going to complain that it's not worth the thousand dollars that she claimed it was. Instead, he's super excited to have been able to buy it and make a good donation to a worthy cause and uses it on the final table of the event. He busts out in fifth place.
If anyone thinks there's no value in casino collectibles, you're an idiot and here you go.