PISMO BEACH, Calif. (AP) - The man known as ``Mr. Plastic Fantastic'' has great credit. So great, in fact, that it takes a wallet nearly as long as a football field to carry his credit cards.
Walter Cavanagh owns 1,497 valid credit cards (he assumes a card is valid until he hears otherwise) with a potential credit line of about $1.7 million.
The retired real estate broker, who lives in the small San Luis Obispo County community of Shell Beach, said his collecting began with a bet more than three decades ago.
He and a friend were sitting in his apartment in 1969 and bet who could collect the most credit cards. The loser would buy dinner.
Cavanagh managed to obtain 143 cards in a year and got a rib-eye steak dinner. He also caught the plastic bug.
He has become so good at collecting the cards that he has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, which gave him his nickname.
He also holds the title for the world's longest wallet - a 38-pound monster that is 250 feet long and can hold 800 cards.
Most of his collection is kept in bank safe deposit boxes, however.
His cards include antiques in paper and aluminum. A number are from long-defunct department stores, gas stations and bars. They come from as far away as Germany and Spain.
``Most cards are from such obscure places, you've never heard of them,'' Cavanagh said Tuesday.
One treasure is a sterling silver credit card offering ``unlimited credit privileges'' from the Mapes Hotel, the first hotel-casino in Reno, Nev. It closed in 1982.
``Maybe they gave out too many,'' Cavanagh joked.
He said the only company that ever denied him a card was the JJ Newberry department store chain in the early 1970s.
``They said I had too much credit,'' he said. ``And to this day I don't have a Newberry's card in my collection.''
Walter Cavanagh owns 1,497 valid credit cards (he assumes a card is valid until he hears otherwise) with a potential credit line of about $1.7 million.
The retired real estate broker, who lives in the small San Luis Obispo County community of Shell Beach, said his collecting began with a bet more than three decades ago.
He and a friend were sitting in his apartment in 1969 and bet who could collect the most credit cards. The loser would buy dinner.
Cavanagh managed to obtain 143 cards in a year and got a rib-eye steak dinner. He also caught the plastic bug.
He has become so good at collecting the cards that he has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, which gave him his nickname.
He also holds the title for the world's longest wallet - a 38-pound monster that is 250 feet long and can hold 800 cards.
Most of his collection is kept in bank safe deposit boxes, however.
His cards include antiques in paper and aluminum. A number are from long-defunct department stores, gas stations and bars. They come from as far away as Germany and Spain.
``Most cards are from such obscure places, you've never heard of them,'' Cavanagh said Tuesday.
One treasure is a sterling silver credit card offering ``unlimited credit privileges'' from the Mapes Hotel, the first hotel-casino in Reno, Nev. It closed in 1982.
``Maybe they gave out too many,'' Cavanagh joked.
He said the only company that ever denied him a card was the JJ Newberry department store chain in the early 1970s.
``They said I had too much credit,'' he said. ``And to this day I don't have a Newberry's card in my collection.''
