My Sticker Mule labeling experience (3 Viewers)

Were they blanks, did you remove the label, or are they overlabels? Asking because I also have a Claysmith set.
From my experience, Claysmith labels are super easy to remove and peel right off with little to no residue. Not sure which ones Danny bought, but they can be found without labels. I looked for these at one time too, and had found some (12 stripes) without labels at less than 15 cents each before shipping and taxes. I may still have a link saved somewhere if anyone wants me to look for it.
 
@danwmson thanks for starting this thread! I'm about to finalize my artwork for a Joker Poker pinball set and I'm going to give Sticker Mule a shot for my labels.

I had a quick question: did they give you any problems with your artwork regarding questions about copyright? In other words, did they question whether or not the casino was real andb if they gave you approval to make the images?
 
@danwmson thanks for starting this thread! I'm about to finalize my artwork for a Joker Poker pinball set and I'm going to give Sticker Mule a shot for my labels.

I had a quick question: did they give you any problems with your artwork regarding questions about copyright? In other words, did they question whether or not the casino was real andb if they gave you approval to make the images?
Nope... Never asked me any questions about copyrights.
 
@danwmson Was the question ever answered: Are the Sticker Mule labels the same thickness as the labels that Gear uses? Sorry if I overlooked it in the thread.

I just bought 300 pink "Royal" blanks from Apache Poker Chips and don't want any spinners. My Gear labels were a great thickness with zero issue stacking.

I'm assuming since mine are blanks that the Sticker Mule thickness shouldn't be an issue...but I'm a rookie...so I'm just wanting to make sure I make the right purchase.

Thanks,
Dom
 
@danwmson Was the question ever answered: Are the Sticker Mule labels the same thickness as the labels that Gear uses? Sorry if I overlooked it in the thread.

I just bought 300 pink "Royal" blanks from Apache Poker Chips and don't want any spinners. My Gear labels were a great thickness with zero issue stacking.

I'm assuming since mine are blanks that the Sticker Mule thickness shouldn't be an issue...but I'm a rookie...so I'm just wanting to make sure I make the right purchase.

Thanks,
Dom
Boy I have no idea. Sorry. I'm no expert in labels or chips for that matter. I don't know thickness of either sticker mule or gear. I just bought them and they worked sweet. Mine were blanks as well. Maybe someone else knows the answers.
 
@danwmson Was the question ever answered: Are the Sticker Mule labels the same thickness as the labels that Gear uses? Sorry if I overlooked it in the thread.

I just bought 300 pink "Royal" blanks from Apache Poker Chips and don't want any spinners. My Gear labels were a great thickness with zero issue stacking.

I'm assuming since mine are blanks that the Sticker Mule thickness shouldn't be an issue...but I'm a rookie...so I'm just wanting to make sure I make the right purchase.

Thanks,
Dom
I'm pretty sure there was a discussion of label thickness earlier in this thread.
 
Definitely can not use their labels as over-labels. I got some extras from @danwmson and put them on some HSI1a. Wobbly stacks and spinners even with 5 chips labeled on both sides.

25E272AA-BDF3-4A7A-A0BB-73408E16A3E2.jpeg
 
But what did you think of the quality?
Great! I’m really impressed with them overall between products and service. Sticker Mule seems to be a great option for labels on chips with a recess deep enough to accommodate their thickness.

I have a limit set project and I’m very much trying to avoid murdering 1k chips, or buying a drill press to mill them. I was really hoping these would work as an over-label. I’ll keep looking!
 
Report back to us. Gear labels are awesome but he’s in such high demand that there’s a wait. For those that can’t wait, another option would be great
250 sheet minimum with Uprinting is not going to work for me. Seems like there's a ton of these sticker businesses - someone will have what we're looking for.
 
OnlineLabels.com has sheets of 63 circular labels that are 2 mils thick - I'm getting a sample of the material. For a single test sheet of printed labels with art, the sales rep quoted $14.95 or 0.23 per label, but I'm hoping that with a larger number of sheets the price will drop e.g. my limit set has a 945/50/10 breakdown and would need 32 total sheets (with different art for each denom, and the 10 are 43mm chips so would require a larger label).

1623785119357.png
 
OnlineLabels.com has sheets of 63 circular labels that are 2 mils thick - I'm getting a sample of the material. For a single test sheet of printed labels with art, the sales rep quoted $14.95 or 0.23 per label, but I'm hoping that with a larger number of sheets the price will drop e.g. my limit set has a 945/50/10 breakdown and would need 32 total sheets (with different art for each denom, and the 10 are 43mm chips so would require a larger label).

View attachment 720059

Sample sheet of 63 blank 1" circular 2-mil labels has already shipped. Expected in 5-7 business days. Quoted cost:
  • $3.31/sheet @17 sheets = $56.27 (~.05 per label)
  • $3.03/sheet @20 sheets = $60.60 (~.04 per label)
I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm a little concerned that the inlay underneath might be visible through a 2-mil label, but we'll see!
 
Does 4 mil seem reasonable for unlaminated depth? Uprinting.com has that as an option.
Don't ask me. :unsure: I've never labelled or milled. I just thought 8 mil sounded super thick.

Sample sheet of 63 blank 1" circular 2-mil labels has already shipped. Expected in 5-7 business days. Quoted cost:
  • $3.31/sheet @17 sheets = $56.27 (~.05 per label)
  • $3.03/sheet @20 sheets = $60.60 (~.04 per label)
I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm a little concerned that the inlay underneath might be visible through a 2-mil label, but we'll see!
I would think (again - total guess) that 2 mil labels will let contrasting appearance under the label show through. Aren't the "wall graphic" labels you tried thicker than 2 mil?
 
For what it’s worth, if they can’t do 22mm I wanted to mention that I picked up the heavy duty 7/8” craft punch to do some home labels at one point. You can view the alignment on the underside for perfect cuts.

View attachment 705249

I have used various brands of punches to make short-run chip labels (e.g. bounty chips, batches too small to bother Gear about). My experience:

Some sheets work with these better than others. I was mainly using weatherproof vinyl stickers for inkjets. iirc I tried both matte sheets and glossy.

Problems:

1. Some grades of sticker sheet were just a hair too thick for the punches to get reliably clean cuts. So there was a lot of waste, i.e. having to punch many more than the necessary number of stickers to get a usable set.

2) Despite being able to view the alignment from underneath, it takes a lot practice to get the alignment down. And even then, the slightest misalignment will be noticeable to a discerning chipper. This is especially true if your label design is very symmetrical, making it easier for the eye to spot tiny misalignment in cuts.

3) As a result of both of the above, I would say I often had to cut 50+% more labels than needed. So for a barrel, I’d need to print sheets of at least 60 labels to yield 40 good ones.

4) Peeling hand-cut labels is much more time consuming than using precut sheets, which are available too from places like OnlineLabels. However, I found that even a professional-grade inkjet printer could not reliably hit the page in just the right spot every time, or even a lot of the time, so this did not work for me. Even 1 mm of misalignment is a lot on a 7/8”-1” label.

I still sometimes will make a very small batch of seating/bounty chips at home, but for anything serious I use @Gear.
 
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4) Peeling hand-cut labels is much more time consuming than using precut sheets
I discovered a trick to make peeling these labels much easier. Flip the label over, and then use a craft knife to very lightly score a small line starting from somewhere in the middle of the label and going out to the edge. If you cut deep enough (it doesn't take much) then you can bend the label on the score line and the backing will split apart, making it easy to peel it off.

Use a light touch; if you cut too deeply you'll leave a cut or dent in the sticker that's visible from the front.
 
Below are some examples of home-made labels using punches and full 8.5x11" sheets from OnlineLabels.com

The red ones are blank 43mm Royals from Apache. I don’t use China Clays in my games except for seating chips, and I think they are pretty perfect for this purpose.

It looks like I used a slightly glossier label stock for the black Faux Jack 100Ks. After cutting I went around the “rolling” edges with a sharpie so the white label color wouldn’t show. (This is a small problem with overlabeling, no matter what quality labels one uses). I let the ink thoroughly dry; with hope it never transfers to the chips, although I don’t expect to ever sell these.

I think the shaped ones (overlabeled CDIs) turned out best, and the deckled edge helped hide some registration issues... OTOH these only just barely covered the original inlay and had to be placed perfectly. This also shows another design I tried for the CDIs. The main benefit of doing your own small custom runs is the opportunity to see how the labels actually look and then adjust on the fly.

IMG_6594.jpeg


IMG_6593.jpeg


CDI seat 3.jpg


SEATING CHIP seat 9.jpg


seating chips cdi.jpg
 
There is no way that poker chip labels are 3mm or 4mm thick (let alone 8). A stack of 18 Royals chips is about the same as a 60mm dealer button, so each chip is about 3.3mm thick. They must be using some other terminology, in terms of "mil".

EDIT: I just looked it up. For some reason "mil" is different than "mm". 4 "mil" is equivalent to 0.1016 "mm". So if Sticker Mule says their laminated labels are 8 mil, that could make sense.

579914AF-08CA-4095-AC8A-68C049B2FEE0.jpeg
 
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One more seating/bounty chip design with custom vinyl labels cut with a punch... 43mm BTPs. You can see some of the problems of using the punch if you look closely.

HBC seating chips BTP.jpg


Anyway, sorry to thread jack away from the Sticker Mule OP. I might have to try those textured wall sign labels at some point if they can do a sheet of 7/8" or 1" labels in that material.
 
There is no way that poker chip labels are 3mm or 4mm thick (let alone 8). A stack of 18 Royals chips is about the same as a 60mm dealer button, so each chip is about 3.3mm thick. They must be using some other terminology, in terms of "mil".

View attachment 720543

I think there is some confusion here between 3mil and 3mm. Per this site, 3mil means .003", which my phone tells me is .076mm ... See:

https://www.formaxprinting.com/blog...ing-a-laminate-thickness-to-fit-your-project/

P.S. Sweet dealer button
 

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