How difficult is it to get 25 cent HSI chips? (1 Viewer)

[HTXNine]

Newbie here. Recently joined PCF after several months of browsing.

I have used everything from plastic Hoyle chips to dice chips to pennies at various home games and poker rooms and have decided to begin trying to put together a good chip set for home games. My college age son has begun hosting games with his buddies when they are in town and I would like to begin having games again as well.

I am looking at trying to put something together for Christmas (already looking at the Barrington table) and was interested in the HSI chips on The Chip Room black Friday sale, specifically the HSI primary cash set.

I'd like to add the 25 cent chips (fracs?) at some point and was wondering how hard they were to come by.

Apologies if this post is taken as a want-to-buy post as I do not have the requisite 10 posts.

 

[BearMetal]

They are QUITE hard to acquire. You'll either have to pay a premium or offer up some very good trade bait. And even then, how many do you need? If more than 1 rack, it's gonna get expensive.

Edit: with that said, there's a black friday sale for Isle of Capris chips that include fracs...

 

[Ben8257]

They are QUITE hard to acquire. You'll either have to pay a premium or offer up some very good trade bait. And even then, how many do you need? If more than 1 rack, it's gonna get expensive.

Edit: with that said, there's a black friday sale for Isle of Capris chips that include fracs...

Correct buddy, quarters are a pain to find... but plays about exactly the same as $.50/$.50 and $.50 are far easier to find!

Also a rack of $.50 even for a full table is plenty for 10 players. For quarters I prefer 120... but if using a barrington which fits about 8 max, 100 quarters would be plenty!

Nothing wrong with you post @HTXNine. Great idea to plan ahead before buying part of a set and having difficulty to complete and make it playable. Especially with the Christmas timeline!!

BTW welcome to the forum! Feel free to shoot a PM anytime sir, if you ever have any questions that you many not be able to find the answer to! Happy to help!

That 10 post minimum will be behind you before you know it!!

Fellow Chipper Ben

 

[BearMetal]

Totally agree with @Ben8257; 50c fracs are easier to find and cheaper generally. The Isle of Capris are 50c I believe.

And yes, these are the questions we love... welcome to the forum!

 

[Colquhoun]

Get in line, lol....
Just check my signature.

Actually, I haven’t been looking very long, but it’s been *crickets* so far.

 

[wolfpack]

find a non white, red, green, or black and relabel with gear labels. That's my plan

 

[Ethan]

Great feedback from the guys above. My advice would be to pick out a set, spend some time browsing the plethora of racks out there that are more readily available, and relabel your own fracs. Do a quick search to learn a ton. I’m happy to help as are everyone here. You’ve found a friendly place.

 

[BearMetal]

Great feedback from the guys above. My advice would be to pick out a set, spend some time browsing the plethora of racks out there that are more readily available, and relabel your own fracs. Do a quick search to learn a ton. I’m happy to help as are everyone here. You’ve found a friendly place.

Lots of relabels on here (which are very easy to do) ... I went the murder route which is much harder but I love the results...

 

[allforcharity]

I'm sure they would be very easy to acquire if you're willing to throw a large-enough wad of cash at it.

 

[Ben8257]

Lots of relabels on here (which are very easy to do) ... I went the murder route which is much harder but I love the results...

I believe the Aransas $1 in blue and the live Players Club in Ventura California is another purdy blue that could be murdered into a nice quarter! I assume by the OP the plan is to go with a white HSI $1 chip. Also the Green valley ranch gray with small blue edge spots are pretty readily available, and @Josh Kifer could hook you up on getting them ready for new labels.

 

[wolfpack]

also blue ones at flaingo, paris, and circus circus among others if you get to vegas

 

[HTXNine]

Thanks guys for the quick and very informative replies. Glad I asked the question.

I really like the HSI sets so we may just need to raise the table stakes for a while and leg into the fracs as/if they become available.

@BearMetal, @Ben8257, @wolfpack - good call on the relabels. That might be the way to go and appreciate the mention of @Josh Kifer. I don't think that is something I want to undertake so early in my chipping career.

@Ben8257 and others, really appreciate the offers of help. Short time here but this seems like a great group of folks. I'm looking forward to the adventure.

@allforcharity, I'm sure wads of cash would work. Not quite there but could be getting close.

 

[BearMetal]

Thanks guys for the quick and very informative replies. Glad I asked the question.

I really like the HSI sets so we may just need to raise the table stakes for a while and leg into the fracs as/if they become available.

@BearMetal, @Ben8257, @wolfpack - good call on the relabels. That might be the way to go and appreciate the mention of @Josh Kifer. I don't think that is something I want to undertake so early in my chipping career.

@Ben8257 and others, really appreciate the offers of help. Short time here but this seems like a great group of folks. I'm looking forward to the adventure.

@allforcharity, I'm sure wads of cash would work. Not quite there but could be getting close.

Don't fear the relabel... an "over label" is just what it sounds like. You have a professional like @Gear make you some nice unlaminated 25c with matching artwork. It's literally peel and stick. Check out the same exact chip as mine from @JMC9389, but it's an over-label instead of a replacement.

Edit: @HTXNine here they are side by side (over label vs replacement). My point being it's VERY easy to overlabel and the results are quite nice, even compared to a replacement.

Over Label	Inlay Replacement
	JACK NJ 25c Splash BearMetal Aug 21, 2020

 

[Ethan]

Thanks guys for the quick and very informative replies. Glad I asked the question.

I really like the HSI sets so we may just need to raise the table stakes for a while and leg into the fracs as/if they become available.

@BearMetal, @Ben8257, @wolfpack - good call on the relabels. That might be the way to go and appreciate the mention of @Josh Kifer. I don't think that is something I want to undertake so early in my chipping career.

@Ben8257 and others, really appreciate the offers of help. Short time here but this seems like a great group of folks. I'm looking forward to the adventure.

@allforcharity, I'm sure wads of cash would work. Not quite there but could be getting close.

One option could be to buy a rack of nondenominated chips to use as fracs until you figure out your relabel! I did that with my first Paulson (also a horseshoe) set. I started with brown starbursts until I settled on relabeling argosy 0.50 chips. Once you get your fracs you can hang on to the nondenoms or sell them back into the community.

 

[Josh Kifer]

Thanks guys for the quick and very informative replies. Glad I asked the question.

I really like the HSI sets so we may just need to raise the table stakes for a while and leg into the fracs as/if they become available.

@BearMetal, @Ben8257, @wolfpack - good call on the relabels. That might be the way to go and appreciate the mention of @Josh Kifer. I don't think that is something I want to undertake so early in my chipping career.

@Ben8257 and others, really appreciate the offers of help. Short time here but this seems like a great group of folks. I'm looking forward to the adventure.

@allforcharity, I'm sure wads of cash would work. Not quite there but could be getting close.

It's not that hard, if ya change your mind. I got like five sets I'm currently doing the same thing for.. and I'm an idiot.

 

[cheque_raise]

They’re definitely out there, but I’d say becoming increasingly rare. How much are you willing to pay to get them? I’d say you ll start getting people’s attention around the $5+ range per chip, but you may even have to go higher. HSI secondary set is much more desirable than many of the sets offered recently, so the fracs for this set are quite sought after.

 

[HTXNine]

@BearMetal, this may reveal my lack of chip knowledge but I can't tell the difference between the over-label vs replacement - they both look good to me. I really like the Jack Casino set as well. The label may be worth considering considering @cheque_raise's $5+ estimate but I'm not ruling anything out now...too early in this journey to rule anything out.

@Josh Kifer, appreciate the vote of confidence. My wife calls me an idiot all the time so I might be able to pull it off but would more than likely send chips to someone who knows what they are doing. I'll stay in touch when I get to that point.

 

[upNdown]

There's a whole world of chips out there. Hang around here for a little bit and learn about them. These HSI chips are the current flavor of the month, but they'll be a dime a dozen soon enough. If you try to chase down those quarters right now, you'll find them, but you'll pay too much - those particular chips will probably never cost you as much as they would today. As people get bored with their sets in the upcoming weeks and months, you'd probably have a chance to grab some for a reasonable price.
Or if you hang out here for a bit, you'll probably find other chips that interest you more.

 

[Ben8257]

Did anyone mention @ReallyGoodUsername just listed a rack of Brown RHC fracs that would match fantastic like for $1 a chip!!

And sold in 5...4.... 3.... lol

 

[HTXNine]

@upNdown, probably very sage advice.

I haven't been a member long but have been looking around for a few months. There are a lot of fantastic collections in here. It is certainly easy to get overwhelmed and want a little bit of everything but your advice is well taken.

Those HSI's, especially the secondary colors, are really nice though. Those and the Jack's caught my eye. Hopefully shows some level of discernment in chips.

@Ben8257, thanks. Those would easily work. I'll take a look if not too late.

 

[Colquhoun]

 

[Johnblue]

I agree with Ethan, if you do get a set of HSI, there’s no shame at all of getting any color solid chip to use as a quarter.

If a .25 is going to be your main chip, it would get pretty expensive to get multiple racks of almost any casino quarters, there’s just WAY less of them in existence than there are 1s and 5s etc.

If you want to build a set based around .25 just pick some cool 1s that you love and have gear make some stickers for you. You will be happy, and your set will be custom.

 

[davislane]

Technically not hard to come buy. Just need to offer the right amount of $ to unlock a few racks.