CPC vs Paulson (4 Viewers)

When glasses can't help players anymore and they play through companions
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I personally like Paulson chips over CPC for 2 reasons due to the extra bright colors and the extra weight. I guess it would be great to customize but those two factors make Paulson the better choice for me for a high end chip.
 
Hello!

Im new to the poker chip world and just wondering if anyone can advise the difference between cpc(rounders, asm, the kind with the horse head inlays) vs classic paulson thc and rhc? are they the same material and finish? Is there a previous thread that i can refer to?

Thank you and sorry if this has been asked before!
The main starting point to consider is that both are genuine casino quality chips. Let me state that again: both are casino quality. Everything else being debated is just personal preferences. One company only sells to casinos now, and the other focuses on the consumer market.

Bud Jones is another company that makes chips for casinos. But their material is different. Again, casino quality, but look and feel is unlike CPC or Paulson.

in the end, decide what is most important to you in terms of look, feel, and price, and then choose the one that checks those boxes.
 
My ASM/CPC chips are now 14 years old and are wearing like iron even though my group shuffled chips like crazy. The brass flakes have all but disappeared unless you look very closely. It never bothered me or my players anyway, most thought they were really cool with the speckles.
 
My ASM/CPC chips are now 14 years old and are wearing like iron even though my group shuffled chips like crazy. The brass flakes have all but disappeared unless you look very closely. It never bothered me or my players anyway, most thought they were really cool with the speckles.
I always wondering if the brass speckles went away. I didn’t realize they were so visible until I bought a sample set of tournament chips from CPC.
 
I have been chipping for just over a year and a half now. I have realized that my personal preferences heavily value customization. I have bought, played, and sold many types of chip sets in that time including China Clays, CPCs, solids, ceramics, Matsuis, RHC, THC, TRK etc. and while I have my preferences and the other players can tell the differences they really dont care too much if the chips are CPC, RHC, THC etc. But they LOVE and really appreciate when the chips are customized. I appreciate that as well. They like Gear labels on murdered chips but there is something to be said for fully custom chips that weren't drilled out with a sticker slapped on. Also, I am a huge fan of shaped inlays which just aren't easy to do on murder relabel jobs. So I am ordering my first fully custom CPC set now and I couldn't be more excited. While I definitely have a preference for the feel of Paulson over CPC, that really isn't a big deal for me. What would compel me to order more CPC sets was a more robust and modern color palette. None the less there are 22 colors or so that I am really happy working with which is enough for a set. I know some people get excited by having real casino chips, but there really is zero appeal to me to having real casino chips from some random casino that I have no personal connection to or that doesn't have any real significant history to it. If I am playing Paulsons I would just assume have Paulson fantasy chips than something like HSI, PCAs, PNYs, etc.
 
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You're only working with 22 colours out of the possible 38?
The only colors that excite me are; Black, Charcoal, Mandarin Red, Imperial Blue, Light Green, Green, Lavender, Purple, Blurple, Dayglo Yellow, Dayglo Arc Yellow, Dayglo Green, Dayglo Peacock, Dayglo Peach, Dayglo Tiger, Dayglo Pink, Retro Red, Retro Blue, Retro Green, Retro Lavender, and Bright White.

If necessary in a tight spot I could get on board with Blue, Dark Blue, Light Blue, and Gray as well.

I would rather re[peat colors than use colors that don't appeal to me.
 
Don't underestimate the power and usefulness of combinations.
The probably awful mustard "Yellow" (as stand-alone) makes a perfect edge spot for Imperial Blue (e.g.)
DG Saturn can also be very interesting if treated as (not "like") the pear green that it is.
Light blue is very nice (just too close to Grey and vice versa), while colors like Red, Pink and others can be very useful depending on the whole "atmosphere" of a set.
 
CPC was ASM (Maine). In between, It was ASM (Vegas) but run by a completely different person. ASM (Vegas) was terrible and the company was on the verge of failing. It was bought by a 3rd party who put chip production back in the hands of the ASM (Maine) chipmaker. However, the damage to the ASM brand was so severe, they changed the name to CPC.
Is there a resource (thread) anywhere where we could read up on this history in terms of the moving from Maine to Vegas and back to Maine?

Curious as to the decision to move to Vegas. I don't know anything about the equipment involved in chip making. Must have been quite the endeavor to move operations.

I'd be interested in seeing the chips that the Vegas operation turned out. Was it terrible in the sense of what we saw BCC crank out when they produced subpar chips? Oblong inlays, ghost molding, etc. I'd imagine it was worse? So bad that they changed names?
 
The only colors that excite me are; Black, Charcoal, Mandarin Red, Imperial Blue, Light Green, Green, Lavender, Purple, Blurple, Dayglo Yellow, Dayglo Arc Yellow, Dayglo Green, Dayglo Peacock, Dayglo Peach, Dayglo Tiger, Dayglo Pink, Retro Red, Retro Blue, Retro Green, Retro Lavender, and Bright White.

If necessary in a tight spot I could get on board with Blue, Dark Blue, Light Blue, and Gray as well.

I would rather re[peat colors than use colors that don't appeal to me.

You're missing out on some good colors
 
Is there a resource (thread) anywhere where we could read up on this history in terms of the moving from Maine to Vegas and back to Maine?

Curious as to the decision to move to Vegas. I don't know anything about the equipment involved in chip making. Must have been quite the endeavor to move operations.

I'd be interested in seeing the chips that the Vegas operation turned out. Was it terrible in the sense of what we saw BCC crank out when they produced subpar chips? Oblong inlays, ghost molding, etc. I'd imagine it was worse? So bad that they changed names?

It was QC issues followed by getting the middle finger from the owner after buyers complained.
 
Don't underestimate the power and usefulness of combinations.
The probably awful mustard "Yellow" (as stand-alone) makes a perfect edge spot for Imperial Blue (e.g.)
DG Saturn can also be very interesting if treated as (not "like") the pear green that it is.
Light blue is very nice (just too close to Grey and vice versa), while colors like Red, Pink and others can be very useful depending on the whole "atmosphere" of a set.

I am already accounting for that to the extent that I agree.

You're missing out on some good colors

what can I say, I only really dig bold colors for my sets. But I can appreciate how other people use colors in their sets.
 
Sorry, but I gotta say. This "Paulson is better then CPC" logic isn't correct IMO. It's two different products, and honestly, I have sold nearly all my Paulson sets to get more CPCs.
Would you say the CPC chips are cheaper overall than Paulsons? I just bought 1000 HSI and I really want to get 1000 CPC but its seems like those are more expensive.
 
Would you say the CPC chips are cheaper overall than Paulsons? I just bought 1000 HSI and I really want to get 1000 CPC but its seems like those are more expensive.
Depends on what Paulsons you’re buying. The Paulsons I tend to buy are usually like $5-6 per chip. Most CPCs are cheaper than that, unless you go crazy with shaped inlays and complex spots, etc.
but if you’re buying used Paulsons from the chiproom, yeah, those are gonna be cheaper than most CPCs
 
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Would you say the CPC chips are cheaper overall than Paulsons? I just bought 1000 HSI and I really want to get 1000 CPC but its seems like those are more expensive.
CPC is as cheap or expensive as you want it. Solids and simple spots can be cheaper then Paulson's, but doing high level spots can add up. It's all about the effort you put in and goals
 
Would you say the CPC chips are cheaper overall than Paulsons? I just bought 1000 HSI and I really want to get 1000 CPC but its seems like those are more expensive.

CPC pricing is very broad.

It really depends on your choices. You really need to take a look at the CPC website and see the pricing options.

Go to the custom chip forum and see what others have created for inspiration and possibilities. There are some really spectacular sets that folks have created. You should spend alot of time playing with the chip design tool.

And get alot of samples. Colors and mold. Aside from the visual differences the molds can really feel different.
 
Is there a resource (thread) anywhere where we could read up on this history in terms of the moving from Maine to Vegas and back to Maine?

Curious as to the decision to move to Vegas. I don't know anything about the equipment involved in chip making. Must have been quite the endeavor to move operations.

I'd be interested in seeing the chips that the Vegas operation turned out. Was it terrible in the sense of what we saw BCC crank out when they produced subpar chips? Oblong inlays, ghost molding, etc. I'd imagine it was worse? So bad that they changed names?
I don't want to rehash the Red Ott story, so I will make this brief.

The chipmaker and head of ASM, Jim Blanchard, retired. He sold the company and the buyer was in Vegas.

The buyer had no clue what he was doing. I get that. We would all like to make a million bucks making chips. It turns out, it is not that easy. ASM Vegas quickly developed a terrible reputation for misshaped chips, unreasonably poor customer service, and orders that were paid for that were never fulfilled. Chips that were produced for peoples personal sets magically appeared on eBay. It was a shit-show of the highest caliber.

When David bought the company, he brought it back to Maine, where Jim could make chips, but not have to deal with the day-to-day "business" side of the operation. Another shit-show occurred, with chip cups (molds) damaged and many others missing - that would later turn up on the secondary market (which were bought by another chipper who simply returned them to their rightful owner).
 
First of all, I think 99% of us agrees that Paulsons >>>>>CPCs. With that said, CPCs are great! They are the only way one will get brand new clay chips and chips with the design of one’s own choice at that. Both are compression made clays but they use different formulas. CPCs are harder and have sort of a rough finish (feel will differ a lot between the different molds). New CPCs require oiling to really shine while new Paulsons generally do not. Most notable difference though is the much wider color palett of Paulsons. Compared to Paulsons a lot of the CPC colors appear a bit dull, and in some cases very dull or washed out. This is especially true with the yellows.

I really like CPCs and have an order in for a custom cashset but if you’re considering a set you should definitely get samples to decide for yourself whether you like them or not.
I was wondering about the finish. I have some sample CPC chips and they all have a very rough finish on the surface. I have some Paulson samples and their surface is smooth. Which are the CPC molds with a smooth finish similar to the Paulson finish?
 
I was wondering about the finish. I have some sample CPC chips and they all have a very rough finish on the surface. I have some Paulson samples and their surface is smooth. Which are the CPC molds with a smooth finish similar to the Paulson finish?
You should get a mold sample set from CPC to decide for yourself. That said, in my experience, the following are the smoother molds: SCROWN, DIASQR, CSQR, FDL, and LCROWN.
 
You should get a mold sample set from CPC to decide for yourself. That said, in my experience, the following are the smoother molds: SCROWN, DIASQR, CSQR, FDL, and LCROWN.
I agree, although all brand new CPCs have a rougher finish than brand new Paulsons. They will wear very nicely though and slightly broken in CPCs are great (or so I hear)
 
I agree, although all brand new CPCs have a rougher finish than brand new Paulsons. They will wear very nicely though and slightly broken in CPCs are great (or so I hear)

I hadn't noticed that. I received a scrown order last year and they were flawless with a perfectly smooth face and crisply sharp edges.
 
I was wondering about the finish. I have some sample CPC chips and they all have a very rough finish on the surface. I have some Paulson samples and their surface is smooth. Which are the CPC molds with a smooth finish similar to the Paulson finish?
This is a great question, and lists exist - hopefully somebody will post it. The funny thing is that many (maybe a majority?) of us would want the list for the opposite reason - a huge preference for textured inlays over smooth inlays.
But that's the beauty of CPC - plenty of options.
 

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