For Sale and For Trade - Protege - 2 Sample Sets (1 Viewer)

I have 2 sample sets of Protege's:

5 Piece set: NCV, $100, $500, $1000, $5000 - excellent used condition

9 Piece set: NCV, .25, $1, $5, $25, $100, $500, $1k, $5k - new condition

I dont know how much these are worth...I've heard some crazy numbers from eBay but PM me an offer if you want them. I will give priority to trade offers that include anything in my Signature Want List.

Thanks for looking.

Godzilla28 said:

9 Piece set: NCV, .25, $1, $5, $25, $100, $500, $1k, $5k - new condition

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These are from the initial production run.

Joe Harris said:

These are from the initial production run.

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I don't know much about these so I won't know which production run they are from. Nice high denoms...I esp. like the $1k chip.

I love these chips and always regretted not getting em when they were available. I have a sample set and I'm gonna take a BIG leap here:
These are the very finest clay chips I have ever seen. That's right, BCC not Paulson or ASM or anything else. Elegant design, well thought out colors and spots. Superb quality

Jambine said:

I love these chips and always regretted not getting em when they were available. I have a sample set and I'm gonna take a BIG leap here:
These are the very finest clay chips I have ever seen. That's right, BCC not Paulson or ASM or anything else. Elegant design, well thought out colors and spots. Superb quality

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You're right, they are fawesome chips. At the time these were readily available at Sidepot, I was still under the impression that I was never going to spend that much on chips...oh well. :

I don't think this is a negative comment in regards to this sample set sale, but there was always one thing that kind of bugged me about the low denoms/cash set. If you were to buy the quarter, ones and fivers you only had 3 total colors on the table (red, white and blue). I always wished the quarter was different than red and white.

I agree. In my still unfulfilled fantasy, I was going to use the NCV as a quarter.
OK I guess it may not be the absolutely perfect set....

72o said:

At the time these were readily available at Sidepot, I was still under the impression that I was never going to spend that much on chips...oh well. :

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That was exactly my thinking. I wanted a set so badly back when Sidepot had them for sale (somewhere between $1.00 and $1.25 if I recall correctly), but there was no way I was going to drop almost $1000 on a set of chips. That's just crazy talk. Nope, never gonna do it.

I have gathered a few of these over the years, and they are indeed excellent chips. Of course, as I was talking about with @Joe Harris the other day, this line of chips is also an excellent example of the issues that could plague BCC. Significantly different inlay appearances, different shades of clay (or outright different colors), ghost mold, and even different diameters all appeared in this line over the years. I am not aware of any misshapen inlays though, and they even aligned the inlays on the later batches. I haven't come across spinners either. The C&S mold is of course top notch. All that being said, these are among the finest home sets ever produced, and even among the finest clay chips overall. I'd recommend them to anyone who's willing to do a little research, and I've already PM'd @Godzilla28 with an offer, so I put my money where my mouth is.

bentax1978 said:

That was exactly my thinking. I wanted a set so badly back when Sidepot had them for sale (somewhere between $1.00 and $1.25 if I recall correctly), but there was no way I was going to drop almost $1000 on a set of chips. That's just crazy talk. Nope, never gonna do it.

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They were $1.39 each towards the end, though I think they may have been cheaper in the early days. There was even at least one blow out sale, though that may have been limited to the secondaries. I can remember thinking $1.00 each was way more than I would ever spend on chips. How naive!

PS: Dibs on the name "50 Shades of Clay" for a documentary about BCC and/or the clay chip industry

Split is going to look in his stash to see if he has any chips off my Trade list. So these are still available.

Jambine said:

I love these chips and always regretted not getting em when they were available. I have a sample set and I'm gonna take a BIG leap here:
These are the very finest clay chips I have ever seen. That's right, BCC not Paulson or ASM or anything else. Elegant design, well thought out colors and spots. Superb quality

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I'm in partial agreement here (I say partial only because I like TRK better). These really are fantastic high quality chips. I think some of BCC's stuff is better than Paulson.

For me...

1) TRK
2) Bud Jones V7 and CICs
3) BCC web mold, GCR, and Proteges
4) Paulson THC
5) Other BCC molds
6) Other Paulson molds
7+... meh

Jambine said:

I love these chips and always regretted not getting em when they were available. I have a sample set and I'm gonna take a BIG leap here:
These are the very finest clay chips I have ever seen. That's right, BCC not Paulson or ASM or anything else. Elegant design, well thought out colors and spots. Superb quality

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Meh... coulda been a contender, but multiple quality issues relegated them to run-of-the-mill BCC chips. Oh, what they could have been, if produced as designed...

BGinGA said:

Meh... coulda been a contender, but multiple quality issues relegated them to run-of-the-mill BCC chips. Oh, what they could have been, if produced as designed...

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There is much truth here. If the best aspects of of the various production runs (clay colors, inlay design and print quality, and so on) had been produced together with defect free production runs (different diameters, ghost mold, and so on), these would be extremely hard to beat. As is, they're solid if you can get the right chips that work together. That was never an easy task, and it's not getting easier. I shudder at the thought of calculating the total number of variations that are out there for Protege chips.

If only we could still buy these types of sets off the shelf, some enterprising company would make a mint.

Everyone is used to paying $2 a chip now.

BGinGA said:

Meh... coulda been a contender, but multiple quality issues relegated them to run-of-the-mill BCC chips. Oh, what they could have been, if produced as designed...

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There must have been issues I didn't see in mine. I have a full sample set plus 20 NCV's, very consistent on size, weight, inlays etc.

Jambine said:

There must have been issues I didn't see in mine. I have a full sample set plus 20 NCV's, very consistent on size, weight, inlays etc.

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Issues were more between different production runs than within them. Slightly different inlays, colors (I think the $25s were the worst offenders here), and chip thickness variations, which made adding onto a set difficult in some instances. On the lower end of the spectrum as far as BCC QC issues go (i.e. no egg shaped inlays or split spots).

Irish said:

(i.e. no egg shaped inlays or split spots

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Haven't seen any evidence of egg shaped inlays, but I do have a rack of $50s that suffers from split spot problems.

Joe Harris said:

Haven't seen any evidence of egg shaped inlays, but I do have a rack of $50s that suffers from split spot problems.

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I forgot about those, I stand corrected

Joe Harris said:

Haven't seen any evidence of egg shaped inlays, but I do have a rack of $50s that suffers from split spot problems.

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Almost all of the $0.50 chips suffer from split spots as well. However, I stop short of calling this a manufacturing defect. It was a somewhat well known and predictable phenomenon with certain edgepot selections combined with certain base and esgespot colors. If it bothers someone, they should avoid those colors and chips. Strangely enough, although I prefer un-split edgespots, the split ones don't really bother me that much, compared to all the other things that we obsess over. I hope that @Godzilla28 doesn't mind this thread derail too much; just look at it as free bumps!

Not to mention the ghosting issues common with the C&S mold.....