New - Want to build a set (2 Viewers)

David O

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Hello all!

I am an avid poker player in Texas and have been using the old chips everyone uses. Well I have champagne tastes and would like to build a reasonable set of Paulson clays. Since I am new to this I have several questions that I am sure many of you can answer for me. Since this is my first set I will settle for used chips but do not know where to start. Here is a list of questions if you do not mind helping out a newbie!
1. What casino chips are easier to collect and assemble a decent size set? 600- 1000 chips
2. What is a good deal for used chips? Price per chip? Price per 100?
3. Where should I start to look other than eBay and this site?
4. If any of you have a reasonably priced starter or racks of 100 I would be interested.

If we were speaking of reloading ammunition I would be good to go but chips I am new to. Love the site and hope to gain knowledge from some of you experts. If you need to know anything about reloading I can help you there!

David Olivares
 
Cash set or tournament? What stakes are you playing? Starting blinds and buy-in amounts? How many players - single table?

Need those questions answered first, before your four questions can be addressed.


And welcome!
 
Cash set or tournament? What stakes are you playing? Starting blinds and buy-in amounts? How many players - single table?

Need those questions answered first, before your four questions can be addressed.


And welcome!


Mostly Cash. One game is $1 - $2 NL and also a $5 - $10 NL. With usually a $300 to $1000 buy in depending on stakes and class of players with 8-10 players on one table.There are a few of us that will play a bit higher but the two lower limit games are what I would need the set for. I may also put together a separate set for tournaments but not high on the priority list.

Thanks!
 
$1/$2 is going to be easier{cheaper} to fill than $5/$10. I assume you would like just one set to serve in both 1/2 and 5/10 since that generally would be cheaper than building two sets. Getting used casino chips to handle even higher limits could be ouchy expensive if you want $500 or $1,000 chips or if $100 chips are not available in bulk at low prices.

I would watch eBay and the classified ads here and on chip talk. There really are not other good sources for casino sets without traveling - (Spinettis in Las Vegas is dangerous to visit, you'll fall in love and go broke but with some nice chips.) Each casino has it's own pricing. A single one dollar chip can run less than $0.25 from the Outpost casino to $3+ from the Bahamia. "Good" deal is relative to the baseline for the casino. Expensive chips tend to be scarce - I am still looking for some "fillers" and have been for years.

I hesitate to offer a general answer for pricing because the accurate answer is "it depends". If you were truly lucky, The Chip Room would have a bulk sale of the entire stock from a closed or rebranding casino and you could buy exactly what you want if you can click the buy button fast enough. (those sales can get sold out rather fast, often in just a few minutes). Even so I will offer a guess - your set is going to cost $1.00 to $1.50 per chip. But it isn't going to be evenly split, the five dollar chips and the twenty fives will be cheaper and the hundreds more expensive. Ones might be bargains or nearly impossible to find depending on the casino. $500 chips are never cheap, perhaps as much as $10+ per chip.

It is a consuming hobby for many of us. I started looking for stickers for a set of NetGens and ended up with tens of thousands of chips and eight+ playable sets of chips. There is never enough, the itch always comes back - at least it does for me.

DrStrange
 
Breakdown suggestion:
200 x $1
300 x $5
200 x $25
100 x $100

Maybe 200/400/200/200 if you need the bank.
 
does $.050 per chip sound reasonable for some reds and greens? They are Paulsons and There are different casinos this person has. Not sure of all of them but I was looking at some Par a Dice casino chips
 
Not sure of your budget but why not look at making a set of customs. China clays will probably run around .50 a chip for customs unless you catch a sale. Ceramics can start out around .60 per chip unless you can catch a sale. Then there is CPC for custom Clay chips and they will start around $2 a chip and go up from there depending on your spot patterns.

All of these will be better than what you have and if you go with customs then you have also added security to your games as well (given your higher home game stakes you should think about this), as no one will be able to purchase chips outside and bring/sneak them into the game.
 
does $.050 per chip sound reasonable for some reds and greens? They are Paulsons and There are different casinos this person has. Not sure of all of them but I was looking at some Par a Dice casino chips


Par-a-dice 5s and 25s for $50 a rack isn't too bad (especially if that includes shipping). They were on clearance for half that in the past 12 months, but Paulson prices overall have moved up. The $1 chips are kind of scarce though (I've been looking for a little while). The $100s and $500 will run a bit more expensive. Aztars, Oak Trees, Grand Victoria primaries circulate at slightly higher prices.

You really may want to think a while on security, although anything will be better than dice chips.
 
Par a dice are pretty nice. I had a set of those when the chip room first offered them. I also had a set of garden city from the chip room.

Like many users, I came here looking for one thing... Custom labelled China clays... And have now had my share of Paulson casino sets. As you get deeper in you will discriminate between types of Paulson casino sets... Mold type (H&C or RHC), shaped inlays, mint/used.

50 cents a chip is pretty good for the used par a dice. If you can wait a little while, it looks like the chip room will be offering a sale soon:
http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/new-chip-room-sale.6652/

Keeping an eye on eBay and the classifieds here is also good. I currently have a set of the first Aztars for sale:
http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/casino-aztar-missouri-500-chipset.6769/

The key is to figure out what you like... But you probably won't know that until you own a few sets...

As time goes on you will also learn about TR King casino chips as well as ASM/CPC customs.

Welcome. Enjoy.
 
Before anyone new goes wild buying chips, they should be warned that it is easy to make mistakes and buy stuff you aren't going to use and aren't going to easily resell. I certainly purchased racks of fun nights, Monte Carlo fantasy chips, cancelled starburst and roulette chips (etc) that were not good decisions. Just because it is Paulson does not insure it is a good chip. I do not recall how long it took me to get "experienced", but it was months for sure.

There is so much information on this site, but it takes a long time to digest. There is no "buying chips for dummies" guide. Custom chips, vintage casino chips, fantasy chips, vintage home chips, crappy new chips - - - the list is long and complex. There are lots of different styles of "vintage casino chips" and custom home chips to become familiar with. And sometimes pictures aren't enough. My Dragoneria chips look great but as soon as you pick one up you know that these are cheap cheap cheap. I find almost all foreign casino chips are dubious if they aren't made by one of the prominent names in the business. Not to say they are fake, but I wouldn't put any of my European chips out for a game.

eBay sellers will lie to you and/or are not aware they are mistaken about what they are offering for sale. (The only negative eBay feedback I ever gave was for "genuine Monte Carlo chips" that clearly never saw the inside of a casino, not even a European gaming room with crummy plastic chips.) You might not get good answers even if you ask pointed questions of the seller. Asking questions here is a much better idea.

It is damn hard to be patient. I know this from personal experience and I am sure many folks here will echo that. Just know that stuff you buy early on is potentially going to end up at the back of the "orphans" shelf.

DrStrange
 
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For less than 50 cents per chip, I would go with some of the Majestic chips offered by site sponsor Apache. You would need to be patient, however, because they are still in the design phase and it will be months before they are shipped. For 50 cents per chip, you are only like to get some very used Paulsons.

I currently have a small set of Double Down Saloon Paulsons for sale at approximately 76 cents per chip. You would likely need to add on some more $5's, but it would be a good start.

http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threa...jacks-and-yaks-4th-of-july-blowout-sale.6552/
 
For less than 50 cents per chip, I would go with some of the Majestic chips offered by site sponsor Apache. You would need to be patient, however, because they are still in the design phase and it will be months before they are shipped. For 50 cents per chip, you are only like to get some very used Paulsons.

I currently have a small set of Double Down Saloon Paulsons for sale at approximately 76 cents per chip. You would likely need to add on some more $5's, but it would be a good start.

http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threa...jacks-and-yaks-4th-of-july-blowout-sale.6552/
The price doesn't have a great correlation to condition. The P-A-D $25s will mostly stand on edge, GV primary $5s won't, garden city $20s are super rounded. Similar price for all of those. I've gotten a rack of mint roulettes for $50 too.

Chip condition is a preference thing, imo.
 
Keep an eye out for the upcoming Point Defiance Hot Stamped chips from The Chiproom. They'll likely not be too high priced to start and they're nice looking chips.
 
Before anyone new goes wild buying chips, they should be warned that it is easy to make mistakes and buy stuff you aren't going to use and aren't going to easily resell. I certainly purchased racks of fun nights, Monte Carlo fantasy chips, cancelled starburst and roulette chips (etc) that were not good decisions. Just because it is Paulson does not insure it is a good chip. I do not recall how long it took me to get "experienced", but it was months for sure.

There is so much information on this site, but it takes a long time to digest. There is no "buying chips for dummies" guide. Custom chips, vintage casino chips, fantasy chips, vintage home chips, crappy new chips - - - the list is long and complex. There are lots of different styles of "vintage casino chips" and custom home chips to become familiar with. And sometimes pictures aren't enough. My Dragoneria chips look great but as soon as you pick one up you know that these are cheap cheap cheap. I find almost all foreign casino chips are dubious if they aren't made by one of the prominent names in the business. Not to say they are fake, but I wouldn't put any of my European chips out for a game.

eBay sellers will lie to you and/or are not aware they are mistaken about what they are offering for sale. (The only negative eBay feedback I ever gave was for "genuine Monte Carlo chips" that clearly never saw the inside of a casino, not even a European gaming room with crummy plastic chips.) You might not get good answers even if you ask pointed questions of the seller. Asking questions here is a much better idea.

It is damn hard to be patient. I know this from personal experience and I am sure many folks here will echo that. Just know that stuff you buy early on is potentially going to end up at the back of the "orphans" shelf.

DrStrange

We should start an orphan chip pr0n thread.
 
Snap buy the set and sell off the chips you dont want or/need. or just keep them all like the rest of us
 
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David,

As manamongkids said, there is a perfect set for you available right now on the forum: http://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/healthy-para-dice-set-for-sale.6816/

I'd jump on it if I were you.

Hello all!

I am an avid poker player in Texas and have been using the old chips everyone uses. Well I have champagne tastes and would like to build a reasonable set of Paulson clays. Since I am new to this I have several questions that I am sure many of you can answer for me. Since this is my first set I will settle for used chips but do not know where to start. Here is a list of questions if you do not mind helping out a newbie!
1. What casino chips are easier to collect and assemble a decent size set? 600- 1000 chips
2. What is a good deal for used chips? Price per chip? Price per 100?
3. Where should I start to look other than eBay and this site?
4. If any of you have a reasonably priced starter or racks of 100 I would be interested.

If we were speaking of reloading ammunition I would be good to go but chips I am new to. Love the site and hope to gain knowledge from some of you experts. If you need to know anything about reloading I can help you there!

David Olivares
 
Thanks to everyone for the heads-up on different sets. I would love the set just posted but it looks like I have that budget already tied up. Having gambled all my life I learned early on that the budgets should not cross meaning Gambling, House and Hobby monies. Makes for a peaceful marriage!

I am getting my first chip set soon and not sure if the bug will bite me as well, but only time will tell. The problem with me is I am a collector of many things but not a collector in one specific area. I collect sports autographs, Pool cues, beer items, guns and ammo. In each one of these collections I could spend way too much money hence the budget! I have many items I could sell but just never got around to it. Some of the items would make great trades if I ever found someone interested. Some of the highlighted items are... Willie Mays Autographed Jersey which he handed to me, Two Super bowl caps signed by Peyton, Eli and Archie Manning (I do not ask for Autographs but did on this one) and other Jersey's including 3 signed by Tony Parker, Guitars autographed by different artist one of which is George Strait. So you see my issue!

I almost wish I could stay with one but I love them all so the budget gets tight depending on what items come up. Having a sales and marketing back ground I always am seeking out great prices so that sometimes gets in the way of my purchases.

The chip set that just posted looks like a great set but would be way more than I need and just like my other items I am not sure I would ever get around to selling them off. I guess what I am saying is I am going to go at it one day at a time.

It seems there are some great people in this forum and I thank each of you for your input and desire in helping a newbie. Much better than one of the other forums (Chiptalk) that I tried several times to get confirmed to be able to post and have not received an answer from them after emailing them with my issue.

Thank you,

David
 
Breakdown suggestion:
200 x $1
300 x $5
200 x $25
100 x $100

Maybe 200/400/200/200 if you need the bank.

respectfully disagree. too few of all but the $1s imo.

for a single table of $1/2 NL with a modestly aggressive group, you should budget at least 2 buy-ins each and the first buy-in should be in all workhorse chips (here, $5s).

stipulating an average buy-in of $250, and that you want to get enough singles on the table to allow people to not have to make change often, just for initial buy-ins you'd need 200 x $1s and 460 x $5s. then the second buy-in should have at least 10 workhorse ($5) chips in there, so another 100 x $5s and 80 x $25s.

for $5/10 NL with an average buy-in of $1k, you'd need to use a similar structure to that above (a stack of blind chips and using quarters as the workhorse). that would require 200 x $5s and 36 x $25s for the initial buy-ins and another 80 x $25s and 70 x $100s for the second buy-in.

and to be safe, i would include enough upper denoms in both to cover another single buy-in by one player. so that would be 25 x $100s for the $1/2 NL and 20 x $500s (or 100 x $100s depending on price/availability of chips) for the $5/10 NL.

the below are the totals based on the above rationale and represent what i actually think is a pretty damn conservative estimate. home games worth playing usually get wild and there should be nights that you'll need more than we're ballparking, but certainly the below should be in the case and ready to go.

200 x $1s
560 x $5s
440 x $25s
70 x $100s
20 x $500s

and further we would round these up because we're not fucking neanderthals for an ultimate set of:

200 x $1s
600 x $5s
500 x $25s
100 x $100s
20 x $500s (or an additional rack of $100s if $500s are too rare or too pricey)
 
respectfully disagree. too few of all but the $1s imo.

for a single table of $1/2 NL with a modestly aggressive group, you should budget at least 2 buy-ins each and the first buy-in should be in all workhorse chips (here, $5s).

stipulating an average buy-in of $250, and that you want to get enough singles on the table to allow people to not have to make change often, just for initial buy-ins you'd need 200 x $1s and 460 x $5s. then the second buy-in should have at least 10 workhorse ($5) chips in there, so another 100 x $5s and 80 x $25s.

for $5/10 NL with an average buy-in of $1k, you'd need to use a similar structure to that above (a stack of blind chips and using quarters as the workhorse). that would require 200 x $5s and 36 x $25s for the initial buy-ins and another 80 x $25s and 70 x $100s for the second buy-in.

and to be safe, i would include enough upper denoms in both to cover another single buy-in by one player. so that would be 25 x $100s for the $1/2 NL and 20 x $500s (or 100 x $100s depending on price/availability of chips) for the $5/10 NL.

the below are the totals based on the above rationale and represent what i actually think is a pretty damn conservative estimate. home games worth playing usually get wild and there should be nights that you'll need more than we're ballparking, but certainly the below should be in the case and ready to go.

200 x $1s
560 x $5s
440 x $25s
70 x $100s
20 x $500s

and further we would round these up because we're not fucking neanderthals for an ultimate set of:

200 x $1s
600 x $5s
500 x $25s
100 x $100s
20 x $500s (or an additional rack of $100s if $500s are too rare or too pricey)


Sure, that's great, but you're talking about 1290-1500 chips, not 600-1000. In that case, you respectfully disagree with the stated chip limit, not my breakdown.
 
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Sure, that's great, but you're talking about 1290-1500 chips, not 600-1000. In that case, you respectfully disagree with the state chip limit, not my breakdown.

look, you can spend your time reading posts and making relevant and helpful suggestions. leave the grunching and and overly long unnecessary breakdown posts to me.

but yeah you're right - i didn't see his limit.

with the limit of 1000 chips i would say:

100 (1)
400 (5)
400 (25)
80 (100)
10 (500)
10 (1000)

and then let cash play for any overage. ideally i would just get a full rack of hundos and a stack (20) each of $500s and $1ks to be kept separately for those nights when they're needed.

EDIT: however, OP, if you're playing $5/10 NL, put on your big boy pants and pay for the right breakdown fer chrissakes, particularly when it's available for such a reasonable price in the form of those par-a-dices.
 
respectfully disagree. too few of all but the $1s imo.

for a single table of $1/2 NL with a modestly aggressive group, you should budget at least 2 buy-ins each and the first buy-in should be in all workhorse chips (here, $5s).

This was my thinking/experience when putting together my main cash sets for our weekly single table 1/1 game (which basically played like a 1/2 game since the average buy-in was $300).

My main four cash sets had $1/$5/$25/$100 breakdowns of 200/700/200/100, 200/800/400/0, 200/780/320/100 and 200/700/400/160

IMO, you can't really have too many $5 chips in a 1/2 game.

Sure, that's great, but you're talking about 1290-1500 chips, not 600-1000. In that case, you respectfully disagree with the stated chip limit, not my breakdown.

Fair point if you're going for a 600-1000 chip total, though I'd still go heavier on the $5 chips unless you needed the bigger bank for 2/5 games.
 
This was my thinking/experience when putting together my main cash sets for our weekly single table 1/1 game (which basically played like a 1/2 game since the average buy-in was $300).

My main four cash sets had $1/$5/$25/$100 breakdowns of 200/700/200/100, 200/800/400/0, 200/780/320/100 and 200/700/400/160

IMO, you can't really have too many $5 chips in a 1/2 game.



Fair point if you're going for a 600-1000 chip total, though I'd still go heavier on the $5 chips unless you needed the bigger bank for 2/5 games.

You need the bigger bank for $5/$10 games with $1000 buy-ins. Is the sin of making change really that much worse that the sin of having cash play?
 
$1/$5/$25/$100 breakdowns of 200/700/200/100, 200/800/400/0, 200/780/320/100 and 200/700/400/160

this is fucking brilliant and if i ever have the patience to use the drop down text color thingy i'm definitely doing this from now on.

also co-sign on the breakdowns.

IMO, you can't really have too many $5 chips in a 1/2 game.

definitely agree for $1/2. i used to feel the same about $2/5, but have had my mind changed over the past couple years and have had it changed again recently (by courage, i think) that $2/5 sets should err on the side of having more $100s than are typical. people are weird about using quarters in my experience and like having black chips.[/QUOTE]
 

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