Custom Chip Regrets (1 Viewer)

I have only one regret about Club Hel and that's the slightly too dark purple for the denomination label on my $500.
However, it's not so severe for me that I'd consider redoing it.

We did do print tests for the inlays up front, but this slipped through the cracks. Not sure what could be improved with the process to catch things like this.

If I'd give some other general advice, it would be --
  • Take your time for the theme, spot and inlay design. Refining takes time, as creativity comes in random bursts, at least for me. Always keep your current draft around you (print it out, put it on your desk at work, have it around at home, maybe even on your phone or tablet on the go.)
  • Even if you only consider e.g. ordering 25c/$1/$5/$25 denoms for starters - do design other denominations around them as well. Design a 5c, a $100, maybe even a $500 and snapper as well immediately together with the other denoms. This should make "painting oneself into a corner" obvious before it can no longer be fixed.
  • Don't fear wasting money on chips you maybe never use and in turn ordering too few. If, during a game, you notice that the game seems to run slow because too many chips of denom X are out, you can always color them up and continue playing with less chips. The other way round is not so easy if you don't have those extra chips in your drawer. Still, do work on your planned breakdown for a while too. Discuss it with others. Think about potential later add-ons to make the set fit for X / cover stakes Y.
  • What gives me more peace of mind is specifically ordering a certain amount of replacements for every denom, rather than hoping for bonus chips. You will get some, but the amount is unpredictable. With specifically ordering replacements, I ensure there won't be shortages in the set racks for long.
 
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Does re-doing a set count? :bag: I de-commissioned (inlays removed) and sold my Broken Bell tourney set last year. Not really a regret but more like taking it up a notch. I want to do different chip designs this time around.
 
My regrets:

Lady Luck Club (BCC MGK) -- wish I had ordered twice as many $1s to better accommodate limit games.

Lady Luck Club (ASM DIASQR) -- had to redo the nickel because light green and light blue have very little contrast. I had the set out for photos and when I put them away, I had an extra $1 and was short a nickel. I have 1200 $1s and it took me nearly 30 minutes to find the nickel that was mixed in. A tiny regret is that the stack heights vary a bit, but I knew that going in. It's not a problem until stacks get around 40 chips high.

That's it! Other than the LLC-ASM nickels, I've never wished that I had done something differently with the inlay designs or the colors and spot patterns. I consider myself lucky.
 
I wouldn’t go quite as far as calling it regret, but I wish the contrast was greater between the light brown and brown spots on my $5. I was worried at the time that maroon would have been too dark.
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Windy Crest Tournament Set - a lighter shade of purple on my 500. In dim light it's too close to the 100.

Cash set - a different shade of red on my $5. It's the one chip I don't love, and I have 800 of them ;)
 
Not a regret really, but it goes to what @Nex said about planning all of the denominations even if you don’t order them initially. My original $1 is light blue. I added a 25c later on and even though it is a 1/2 pie the DG green is close enough that if that side is showing it blends too well with the light blue. I also added a $25 chip that had the same problem with the light green base. So I added a secondary $1 chip that is a darker shade of blue. I still use both $1’s though.
 
I am quite happy with my custom set, but my one regret is that it is not as good as the second set I have designed and in the wings waiting on funds.
 
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I regretted not buying what I wanted the first time.

When I was designing my Everleigh club set, I became intent on putting the retro colors (red, green and blue) on a black chip for my workhorse $1. I really wanted a 3v12, with a bright white, but the 3a12 was something like .70 per chip cheaper, and on 1000 chips, it meant $700 so I was rationalizing 3a12.

Abby99 said (as she is very kind)..."that looks great, but the spots may not contrast as much as you'd like". We are close friends, but she generally is less direct when telling me that my decisions may need reconsideration :). I thought I had enough lighting in my basement that the contrast would be ok. It was ok, but not great. It tilted me for a while until I ended up replacing all 1000 with the same chip with a white spot in 3v12. I love my chips. Saving $ ended up costing me $$$$.

Lessons... 1. I should have listened to @abby99 or anyone with good sense like she has, even when she is being kind. 2. And you should trust your judgement and buy what you want the first time around even if it means deferring the purchase to be able to put together the cash.
 
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Butterscotch would have given you the extra contrast you wanted for sure. It is a great color! Of course I’m a more than a little partial!

Extra note, maroon is more dark brown than red in my opinion. Going with butterscotch and maroon will provide the biggest contrast over the chocolate choices.

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And you should trust your judgement and buy what you want the first time around even if it means deferring the purchase to be able to put together the cash.

^^^ This bears repeating.

My parents taught me this from early on. Don't cheap out. Eventually you'll end up buying what you really want anyway.
 
I've never done a custom set but am about to - I'm curious to know what your regrets are - mainly so that I can avoid potential traps!
A few things, really. The biggest is the actual chip itself. Sunfly uses two very different slugs for their 39mm. The 39/25.4mm has a much more rounded shoulder than the 39/28.5mm slug. In my opinion the sharper edges shuffle better. They also look better in stacks.
The second is my own preference. There are a few chips in the line up that are meh...completely on me. Admittedly I rushed my own project. That said, the one thing I did withy tourney set was worked for two straight weeks going through tons of spot concepts and variations. Then I took a few weeks off away from them. Didn't think about them. Didn't look back at them. When I did sit down with the chips again I found some of the chips I was 100% about were now "what the "F" was I thinking?"
That is something I would suggest to anybody. Take a few weeks off when you think you've got your set all sussed out. You'll realize pretty quick you don't. :p
 
Mine was the order quantities. Ended up with a few too many 1s and 5s. Coulda been halfway to a tourney set by being a bit more moderated.

I'm always like that though...always worried I won't have enough. Make way too much food when we have guests, etc.
 
I regret not putting demons on the chip but I didn't know better 8 years ago.

I would choose different edge spots now but back then I did what I could afford.

Despite the above I still love my set and will give it to my kids one day.
 
Butterscotch would have given you the extra contrast you wanted for sure. It is a great color! Of course I’m a more than a little partial!

Extra note, maroon is more dark brown than red in my opinion. Going with butterscotch and maroon will provide the biggest contrast over the chocolate choices.

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I also mocked up a butterscotch base because of this exact chip, but although it looks completely perfect as an autumn leaf, it didn’t work for a giraffe.

I still maintain that I wouldn’t probably have done customs without having seen the clubhouse set. There’s lots of custom sets I love on here, but the inlay/chip colour theme matching really inspired me to do the same with my own.
 
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Just curious how many have built custom sets, whether CPC or Ceramic and have decided to redo a chip in the set. Better yet, redo a chip that impacted several in order to get it just right..

I wouldn't call it a "regret" per se, however after I submitted the order to CPC for my dragons, I thought to switch some colors between two chips. However, it was too late and I had to be content with what I'd selected; and yet they still turned out brilliantly.

What that taught me is that there will NEVER be a perfect chip... only the pursuit of one.
 
I redid my $100 on my reorder, the original 814 (as much as I love them) bugged my OCD side in my set that otherwise had a base 3 spot progression. You can see the old hundos in the back of the row.
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I may regret having made the Athenian Owl Club set too large (for my wallet:LOL: :laugh:), with both cash and tourney sides, and not keeping some money for a seperate, different (and different-themed) tourney set, shamelessly copying ES something chips (8A18 spots) within CPC means (6A18 and 6D18 for the couple top denominations).
If only I had seen on time @k9dr 's Game of Thrones and @bentax1978 's Dead Man's Bay dream sets...:)
 
Regret #1: My first set of customs were "Official Casino Weight Clay Composite" chips. They were neither.

Regret #2: I took the advice on another (now defunct) website to not put denominations on the chips, leading me into the endless world of "How much are these worth?"

Regret #3: Same vendor sold me an add-on to expand the set. They were ceramic, not the ABS plastic. The color was off, and they were different thicknesses, making stacks constantly uneven.

So basically, the top 3 regrets are "I didn't find PCF" before ordering chips.

Regret #4: I ordered far too many T500s for my CPS set and my CPC sets. However as many of my players have deemed the purple chips their favorite chips, this isn't much of a regret (until it's time to count large stacks of T500s, and my players count them in stacks of 2) :banghead:.
 
Regret #1: My first set of customs were "Official Casino Weight Clay Composite" chips. They were neither.

Regret #2: I took the advice on another (now defunct) website to not put denominations on the chips, leading me into the endless world of "How much are these worth?"

Regret #3: Same vendor sold me an add-on to expand the set. They were ceramic, not the ABS plastic. The color was off, and they were different thicknesses, making stacks constantly uneven.

So basically, the top 3 regrets are "I didn't find PCF" before ordering chips.

Regret #4: I ordered far too many T500s for my CPS set and my CPC sets. However as many of my players have deemed the purple chips their favorite chips, this isn't much of a regret (until it's time to count large stacks of T500s, and my players count them in stacks of 2) :banghead:.

I keep seeing your signature and I want to switch the quote to "there are only 2 types of people....." so that it will actually make sense.
 

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