@BearMetal Found it. Actually it was an email from Gene when I was trying to decide on my first set. Good info so I'll just paste it here, also goes to show their level of customer response, seriously those folks are tops!
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Hi Bryce-
Haha…yes it’s a common path! I’ll go through and answer the questions all together, as it might make more sense as a whole than piece by piece.
I started ABC Gifts and Awards in 2004. I began manufacturing poker chips, and quickly earned a very good reputation on Chiptalk (the main poker chip forum at the time, of which PCF came from). At the time, our competitors in the US were Nevada Jacks, BR Pro, Palm Imports, and Chipco. In 2011 we acquired Nevada Jacks, 2016 acquired BR Pro, 2018 acquired Palm Imports. Chipco went bankrupt in around 2015, and their equipment was bought by Palm. After Chipco went bankrupt, some of their people started up a new company, Game On. They sold to another company last year, and I hear that they are no longer making ceramic chips, but not 100% sure. I’ve seen people on PCF try to order from them with no success.
A ceramic “blank” is the base chip that is used to print on. We manufacture on our ABC smooth blanks, and on the NJ textured blanks. (We also manufacture on Chipco blanks, but only for casinos) All ceramic chips from ABC/BR Pro are ABC smooth blanks, except for Nevada Jack or Desert Sands branded chips which are the textured chips.
The original owner of BR Pro had some designs that he licensed for Apollon Chips (Sunfly) to manufacture in China. Any chips purchased through them will not match ours – different blanks, different printing, different colors, etc. A sample set that you get from us would be basically useless if you intend to purchase from China. Of all the designs you mentioned, only the Dropa Disc is one that they sell…the others are all exclusively ours.
We don’t have any stock designs in 43mm, but can make them in that size. These would fall under the custom 43mm chip pricing. I put a couple sample 43mm chips in the package that went out for you today.
Regarding the BR Pro website not having AE/AP options…we’ve been working on a new website for quite some time. It’s nearly finished, but we’re so backed up that we’ve been stuck on about 95% for a while now. The new site will definitely have AE/AP options in the dropdown menu. I can’t believe the company that hosts the current site doesn’t have those.
Ok…well I think I touched on everything that you asked. If not, just let me know.
Thanks,
Gene
www.brpropoker.com
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I bet you could get the NJ printed on the ABC blanks if you asked real nice, maybe?