Going down the rabbit hole... Paulsons, CPC, CCs, DDLM, TIKIs - SO MANY OPTIONS, SO LITTLE FUNDS... (1 Viewer)

Some more clarification on current cost ranges for a typical 500-600 chip cash set, which you might be able to purchase right now:

Paulson and similar compression clay: depending on condition/demand, can range from about $500 to the-sky's-the-limit. Pro: tends to retain value. Con: can take a long time to build a set; customization will take a lot of effort (i.e. milling, label-over, full inlay replacement, etc.)

CPC customs: typically $1000-$2500. Pro: lots of customization options, excellent quality brand new compression clay. Con: can take time to get your chosen mold in rotation, generally lower resale value

Custom ceramic/hybrid: $400-$800. Pro: unprecendented level of customization, durable. Con: Low to no resale value. Possible high shipping costs from China.

Casino grade plastic: $300-400. Pro: durable. Con: half the forum will scoff at you for considering plastic.

China clay: $200-300. Pro: durable, lots of stock choices, label customization possible for extra cost. Con: inconsistency between batches, possibly malodorous, different "feel" than other material types above, lower resale value
 
ChipEnvy said:
This is a tricky question. Why do you want the chips? Are you just looking to enhance your home game and are looking for a 'one and done' type of purchase, then I would look at how much you are willing to spend and go from there. If you are thinking that this may be a cool hobby to get into, then look at your situation and get some samples and start building a collection!

If you are just looking for an upgrade for your home game and don't want to get too invested (financially and personally) into this as a hobby, you'd likely be happy with a set of China Clays, decent quality chips and great comparative price to higher end stuff so you might want to go that route.

If you want top of the line type stuff and are just going for a one and done approach, go custom. No need to mess around with retired casino chips, custom chips would add more to your (and your players) experience than a set of chips from a place you have no connection to.

If you wanna get into an awesome hobby, start small and don't over extend yourself. Paulson chips can get pretty spendy pretty fast, but IMO are worth it. Just start acquiring what you like a bit at a time. You might even see that what you thought you liked are not really what you actually like.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Good Luck, hope you find the best chips for you!
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I can get too deep into hobbies sometimes, and this may be one of those hobbies - so it may be better for my wallet if I set a cap now! haha
I'll see how the ceramics compare to the CCs, and maybe go from there. I would love to go all out and do a paulson minty cash set, but I also want to keep some cash on hand just in case.. with the market going the way it is right now
 
allforcharity said:
Some more clarification on current cost ranges for a typical 500-600 chip cash set, which you might be able to purchase right now:

Paulson and similar compression clay: depending on condition/demand, can range from about $500 to the-sky's-the-limit. Pro: tends to retain value. Con: can take a long time to build a set; customization will take a lot of effort (i.e. milling, label-over, full inlay replacement, etc.)

CPC customs: typically $1000-$2500. Pro: lots of customization options, excellent quality brand new compression clay. Con: can take time to get your chosen mold in rotation, generally lower resale value

Custom ceramic/hybrid: $400-$800. Pro: unprecendented level of customization, durable. Con: Low to no resale value. Possible high shipping costs from China.

Casino grade plastic: $300-400. Pro: durable. Con: half the forum will scoff at you for considering plastic.

China clay: $200-300. Pro: durable, lots of stock choices, label customization possible for extra cost. Con: inconsistency between batches, possibly malodorous, different "feel" than other material types above, lower resale value
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Really helpful breakdown! Thanks!
 
juankay20 said:
These look great! I'm starting to lean towards this route.. and then maybe accumulating some paulsons along the way until I have enough for the set i want.. I've sent some emails to @ABC Gifts and Awards , so still waiting to hear back on customizing options.
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Don’t forget that we’ve been ordered to shelter in place in California. Might be a while before you could make a set from them materialize. Plenty of time to decide what you’d want :)
 
RichMahogany said:
Don’t forget that we’ve been ordered to shelter in place in California. Might be a while before you could make a set from them materialize. Plenty of time to decide what you’d want :)
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Haha so true! NY is creeping towards that as well.. I guess I'll have a lot of time to think about my options indeed, but it also hinders me getting some other samples :-/ Maybe they'll keep the post office open..
 
jump in head first! From my one month experience in chipping, it has saved me time and money.

plus, all these premium chips are even more beautiful in person!
 
chrismurda said:
jump in head first! From my one month experience in chipping, it has saved me time and money.

plus, all these premium chips are even more beautiful in person!
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I can only imagine! (for now..) haha
 
Think of the purchase as an investment. Here’s something to consider. A good quality chip set, either CPC or GPI, possibly even good ceramics or CC’s will tend to hold their value. Some of the higher end chips will possibly even gain in value. There is always going to be a market for them so moving them down the road won’t be an issue.
The alternative is to spend $500-$600 on a cheaper set that will in essence be like throwing your money down for chips that won’t be worth anything. And that’s cool, too. Provided you’re okay with putting out those funds to increase your game. I get what your saying. The optics for non-chip junkies (wives, partners, friends...but especially marital partners) is like “you spent what in fn chips??!?!?!? :eek: . But when you explain it’s basically no different to hiding cash in your mattress....
 
Rhodeman77 said:
I’m not sure if the BR Pro 15% is still going on, but I love my set of semi-custom DDLM chips I just received. 1000 chips for just under $600 is hard to beat. I’d take them over any China Clay set in a heat beat.

View attachment 425754
And if you stick around long enough you’ll end up with something like this and get all the options you mentioned.

View attachment 425755
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I heard the table creaking under the weight of those righteous chips@
 
I will highly recommend one caveat to this discussion. If you are going to go with the China Clays, get either Dunes, Majestic, Pharaohs or Royals if you want to try 43's. Stay away from the Milanos and I will give you two reasons why.

First off, Milano's are very easy to buy and produce. If you don't know your poker players that well, some could bring phony chips and try to cash them in your game. This is a rarity but must be considered.

The second is simply they are the lowest quality chip in the China Clay market. If you want it quantified,, I can help.

Store chips (Bicycle): Quality 0, price 0
Dice chips (Desert Palace, etc ) Quality 2, price $. (feel slippery and awkward to handle) -- I don't bother with these like at all, but I've heard Nexgen Pro are decent chips in this category. I personally won't think about it unless it's China Clay or higher, maybe someone else can help you with these.
Milanos: Quality 2, price $$.
Low end ceramics (Scroll, Nile Club, Howdy Cowboy, etc.). Quality 3, price $$ (these are cheap but I've heard horror stories about them breaking while splashing the pot)
China Clay's (Dunes, Majestic, Pharaohs): Quality 5, price $$ (very low chance of the label coming off or the chip breaking but it's still a possibility)
Royals: Quality 6-7, cost: $$$ (you can actually get Nevada Jack ceramics for about the same price)
Sunfly Hybrids: Quality 8-10, price $$$-$$$$$ (I actually haven't owned any yet, depends on how much you customize them)
Ceramics (ABC Gifts, BRProPoker): Quality 10, Price: $$$-$$$$ (I'm giving this a quality of 10 because I saw a guy put a Nevada Jack chip in a blender and damage the blender with only minor wear to the chips. As long as you don't shuffle them as often as someone in a card room, you should be fine.) Just remember if you get custom ceramics, they're gonna be your chips for life, probably. I have little to no interest in selling my ceramics.
Paulsons: Quality 9, price: $$$$$+++, resale value is good.
 
SteveHNo96 said:
I'll give you my first chip story. I hadn't bought any chips yet. I just got samples. My sister-in-law was using dice chips stamped with Desert Palace and I was telling a couple about the different quality of poker chips. Well, I brought in my sample sets and the girlfriend fell in love with the Wicked Spades. She openly said "I can feel the difference in quality", and before the game was over, she made me promise to buy a set of wicked spades, so those were my first actual ceramic set and I love them just as much now as I did when I bought them 3 1/2 years ago.

You can't really go wrong with Wicked Spades, DDLM, or (my mom would kill me if she heard this) Tiki Kings. They're all good. In fact, here's my set of DDLM's coming in.

I haven't sampled the Royals but I do have a sample set of Majestics, I like them. I also like the GPI Monacos which I bought last year, those are mostly out of stock though, but the Elites still have tons of quarters, 1's, 5's and 25's.

https://www.apachepokerchips.com/product/paulson-elite-poker-chips/

https://www.apachepokerchips.com/product/monaco-poker-chips/

That's something to consider also.

View attachment 425761
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Waiting on my cash set too!
Brown_BRProDDLM.jpg
 
I actually have 2 chip sets, One ceramic and the other china clay. You can definitely feel the difference. Sample sets are the way to go!
 
SteveHNo96 said:
I will highly recommend one caveat to this discussion. If you are going to go with the China Clays, get either Dunes, Majestic, Pharaohs or Royals if you want to try 43's. Stay away from the Milanos and I will give you two reasons why.

First off, Milano's are very easy to buy and produce. If you don't know your poker players that well, some could bring phony chips and try to cash them in your game. This is a rarity but must be considered.

The second is simply they are the lowest quality chip in the China Clay market. If you want it quantified,, I can help.

Store chips (Bicycle): Quality 0, price 0
Dice chips (Desert Palace, etc ) Quality 2, price $. (feel slippery and awkward to handle) -- I don't bother with these like at all, but I've heard Nexgen Pro are decent chips in this category. I personally won't think about it unless it's China Clay or higher, maybe someone else can help you with these.
Milanos: Quality 2, price $$.
Low end ceramics (Scroll, Nile Club, Howdy Cowboy, etc.). Quality 3, price $$ (these are cheap but I've heard horror stories about them breaking while splashing the pot)
China Clay's (Dunes, Majestic, Pharaohs): Quality 5, price $$ (very low chance of the label coming off or the chip breaking but it's still a possibility)
Royals: Quality 6-7, cost: $$$ (you can actually get Nevada Jack ceramics for about the same price)
Sunfly Hybrids: Quality 8-10, price $$$-$$$$$ (I actually haven't owned any yet, depends on how much you customize them)
Ceramics (ABC Gifts, BRProPoker): Quality 10, Price: $$$-$$$$ (I'm giving this a quality of 10 because I saw a guy put a Nevada Jack chip in a blender and damage the blender with only minor wear to the chips. As long as you don't shuffle them as often as someone in a card room, you should be fine.) Just remember if you get custom ceramics, they're gonna be your chips for life, probably. I have little to no interest in selling my ceramics.
Paulsons: Quality 9, price: $$$$$+++, resale value is good.
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This is great, I really appreciate it!
 
Beaniman said:
Waiting on my cash set too!
View attachment 426062
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I like these chips but I gotta say one thing to you: Why do you have a huge gap between the $5 and the $50? I don't disapprove entirely but you really need a $20 chip or something -- your set is BEGGING for a $20 chip -- I may not know as much as the other people here but a $20 chip would make that set near perfect. Also why do you have a white chip with no value AND a $100 white chip? That might get confusing REALLY fast especially given the possibilities with the other chips and plaques.

I will say I like the choice of words. Those are cool on the chips. I can't think of anything to say though. I just like the idea of the chips being what they are. :)
Hinckley_BRProDDLM (2).jpg
 
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SteveHNo96 said:
Second, understand the type of chips you're looking at. CPC's are gorgeous chips but have a very high price tag, in many cases over $1 a chip with a 1000 chip minimum order.
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CPC doesn’t have a 1,000 chip minimum order. It’s 300.
 
upNdown said:
CPC doesn’t have a 1,000 chip minimum order. It’s 300.
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Some of the designs have a 1000 chip minimum, I know the 43mm ceramic hybrids that run $1.03 each have a minimum order of 1000. I was recommended to that site and then some of the designs I found had a 1000 chip minimum for pricing. I was like "Really?"

Himewad said:
@SteveHNo96 I’m not a huge fan of these chips, but I love your custom cash lineup. Especially the $13 chip.
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Thank you. Ever since I crafted that, the first thing I said was "Holy shit, this is perfect" and when the proofs came up, I was like "Oh man this is better than I imagined". It was loosely based on the GPI Monaco lineup but I figured a $10 chip wouldn't have any impact. $13, on the other hand is absolutely perfect with the DDLM/Halloween theme AND it actually isn't too hard to make change for.
 
SteveHNo96 said:
Some of the designs have a 1000 chip minimum, I know the 43mm ceramic hybrids that run $1.03 each have a minimum order of 1000. I was recommended to that site and then some of the designs I found had a 1000 chip minimum for pricing. I was like "Really?"
Click to expand...


0B7712C7-5562-4E2F-86FE-7016FA21E91E.gif


What do CPC and Sun Fly hybrids have to do with each other?
 
SteveHNo96 said:
I like these chips but I gotta say one thing to you: Why do you have a huge gap between the $5 and the $50? I don't disapprove entirely but you really need a $20 chip or something -- your set is BEGGING for a $20 chip -- I may not know as much as the other people here but a $20 chip would make that set near perfect. Also why do you have a white chip with no value AND a $100 white chip? That might get confusing REALLY fast especially given the possibilities with the other chips and plaques.

I will say I like the choice of words. Those are cool on the chips. I can't think of anything to say though. I just like the idea of the chips being what they are. :) View attachment 426234
Click to expand...
I already have a rack of black 20s and the Non-denom whites 39mm will be 5c or 10c for micro stakes and would never be in the same game as a 100$ 43mm chip
15848070360056937529057467521923.jpg
 
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Beaniman said:
I already have a rack of black 20s and the Non-denom whites 39mm will be 5c or 10c for micro stakes and would never be in the same game as a 100$ 43mm chip
Click to expand...

Just wanted to make sure, man. I just had visions of you guys running out of $5 chips and looking for a way before you got to $50.


I never thought of using the NCV for 5 and 10c at the same time, mostly because I figured a person could just throw two 5c chips in. But that's good to know. I appreciate you answering that.

I will tell you the feedback I've gotten on this set has been in general people seem to REALLY love the 43's more -- one of my friends got it in today and he loves the way the colors pop on the bigger chips, so I wouldn't be surprised if in the future you make all the chips 43's.
 
As a long time custom chipper, I will tell you that generally, customized chips do NOT have great resale value (hall of fame or not). You would be lucky to get 1/2 of the original cost. There are very few second hand customs out there that I would justify paying the same amount as a new custom purchase from CPC.

with that said customs are awesome and I would recommend that route if you can afford it. If you are afraid that your taste will change (and they mostlikely will) with time then go for a simple, classic design. Perhaps some solid customs at CPC , followed with add ons in the future when you have additional funds.
 
I’m new. I was interested in CC. Ordered a couple of samples and glad I did because I discovered it wasn’t for me. A lot of personal preference though - you may like them.

I went with Tikis but I’m sure they aren’t the favorite of many here. I like them.

With that being said, I’ve already ordered CPC samples and a couple of different Paulson options. Already thinking about what I want next. I guess that’s the disease. Good luck!
 

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