Out of chipping for 10? years-ish--I have some questions (2 Viewers)

H

Heather

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I was somewhat active in the chipping community before my son was born. Now, he's 13 and starting to love poker and love chips as well. I just had my second knee replacement, and I have some time on my hands, so I checked out the forum out of curiosity, and I am enamored all over again. But I'm also a little confused because I've been away for a while and I have some questions. Also, I did search for some answers on the site before posting this.

What is TINA?

What does it mean to "murder" a chip?

When/why did selling by the "barrel" (rather than a rack) become a thing?

Can people still have custom Paulson chips made?

Is CPC the only vendor making custom clay chips for the home/fantasy market?

How can one find out the value of chips they currently own?

Thank you.
 
Tina is the name that we used to refer to the vendor on Alibaba that makes very cheap ceramic customized poker chips.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ramics-master-consolidated-info-thread.65544/

Murdering a chip means to rip the inlay/label off of it and to relabel it as a different casino and/or denomination.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/jack-cincinnati-fight-back.71670/

Paulson no longer sells to the home market. The only way to acquire real clay chips is to either buy them when a casino closes from vendors here like TCR, or to order customs from CPC. Side note: CPC chips do not feel or sound like Paulson's (But they are real clay and some people do prefer them)

The best way to find the value of your chips is to do searches for classified/auctions and to ask the community.
 
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Welcome back to chipping! @BearMetal pretty much said it all, but I just wanna add that if you have any BCCs left in the vault, the community has decided that all of that crap is to be sent to me for for proper disposal, free of charge. You’re welcome.
 
Heather said:
When/why did selling by the "barrel" (rather than a rack) become a thing?
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I'll start out by saying that his community has gotten weird, and none of the old rules matter.
I have no idea why anybody would ever want or need a barrel of anything, other than hundreds to compliment the .25/.50 set.
But people collect differently. There are a bunch of people who collect barrels of hundreds. Why? I don't know. I guess it makes them happy. I remember one guy wanted a barrel of every $1 chip on the las vegas strip. Why? See above.
But I will say that it's not necessarily a new thing. I've seen some old-timer chiptalk types selling off their collections and they'll have a barrel of Olivias and a barrel of Ritz and a barrel of PCNYs - again, makes no sense to me, but they definitely didn't ask my opinion.
 
Machine said:
You can also post high quality photos of your chips and ask for help in a post. Give us any or your history with the chips
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I dug up my old odds & ends to see what I have. I have three sets that I hope to take pictures of and post soon and reintroduce myself. I already love this place.
 
Heather said:
Yes--I'm a little stunned. I was wondering whether this is because the supply is so limited.
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Welcome back! :)

Heather said:
Yes--I'm a little stunned. I was wondering whether this is because the supply is so limited. There certainly are some beautiful chips and sets out there.
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During covid restrictions people had money to spend and due to the heightened demand collectibles went up in value. As more people got interested in chips, naturally more deep pockets entered the scene as well. If poker chips were very much a niche hobby earlier, at least certain chips can now be seen as an investment to diversify one's portfolio (like baseball cards, watches, or comic books).
 
Welcome back Heather!

Prices have gotten a little nutty. Possibly from reasons mentioned above. Also figure that the chip companies went out of business a while ago now. BCC was around 2010 or so, TR King closed in 2006. Paulson stopped selling to the public for the most part in 2000. They had a short amount of time when they allowed some bulk 'non-casino' mold buys. I think those also got shut down around 2007 or so.

One exception to being able to order custom Paulsons, some have been able to orgranize group buys through connections and some invite only buys. See the Tiger Palace, Aurora Star, and a handful of others. These were sold at high prices and continued to quickly rise in value.

So the only 'real clay' mfg that will do customs is CPC. Inflation and zero competition equals paying around $3+ otd for customs.

Prices and value have driven many away. When you look at a set sitting in the closet that you paid $500 for and it's now worth $2000+, priorities change.
 
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Why would anyone think chips are immune to inflation? They are a luxury good, and inflation hits them the hardest.

Everyone had money during Covid. By some of the amateur statisticians here that would correlate to “if you need money, just get Covid” because when Covid came money came so they are obviously cause and effect. Just graph it and you will see.

Probably could have solved some other social problems with the money, but we chose to drive the price of chips up instead.
 
Welcome! Very curious to see what sets you have from way back. In my closet were Crystal Park, Mirage Springs & Hilton Mayaguez cic
 
Welcome back! I'm in the same boat, was somewhat active about 10 years ago as well, crazy how much prices have blown up since the early 2010's!
 
Huskerchipper said:
Same boat here...been gone for 10 years just came back a month ago. So much remorse I didn't buy more chips but thankful I have 2 fantastic sets from back then.
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Yep, I'm lucky to have one decent set that I got from The Chip Room. At the time, I found it hard to stomach spending more than like $2 a chip, how things have changed haha
 
Scatterbrained said:
Yep, I'm lucky to have one decent set that I got from The Chip Room. At the time, I found it hard to stomach spending more than like $2 a chip, how things have changed haha
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^This is truth.... MINUS the "haha".
I don't find it funny that "insider" runs of Paulson chips are being done (seemingly against published Paulson policy) and then sold for insane prices. I'm still a little put off by the "fantasy" cruise ship chips that were also steathily made by some on this forum. I was very active here then and I think I would have given everyone here a chance to get in on it, if I had any "say-so". It could have been done with some thought, in my opinion. Subsequently, those same chips were being offered at STIFF premiums. If that sounds bitter, I'm not. It just strikes me as less of the "community" than it used to be and seemed to be the beginning of what I observe now.
I've bought and sold many chips at very reasonable prices, with my main goal being to not LOSE money so I could buy other chips. That doesn't seem to be the current condition (although it does not apply to EVERYONE).
I don't argue against the concept of "market", the fact that something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it: If someone is willing and able to pay a certain price, more power to them. I am your typical chip obsessed person who has a weird love for these round tokens but I will NEVER pay those prices, chip freak or not. I've been around a LONG time as a chip geek. BCC, ASM, TRK and Paulson were all selling to the public back then and prices were premium but within grasp of a "worker bee". I think I bought my first BCC set at .75 per chip for awesome chips. Like I stated in another post, gold and silver have not seen as much price appreciation as Paulson chips, in the same time frame. I'll keep my gold and silver.
There is still MUCH value to this forum in the form of information, chip design tools, photo galleries, etc. and access to the myriad of vendors here. So I still support this forum and the above is strictly MY opinion based on what I have observed over a long time.
Welcome back to the "hobby".
 
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KingZilla said:
^This is truth.... MINUS the "haha".
I don't find it funny that "insider" runs of Paulson chips are being done (seemingly against published Paulson policy) and then sold for insane prices. I'm still a little put off by the "fantasy" cruise ship chips that were also steathily made by some on this forum. I was very active here then and I think I would have given everyone here a chance to get in on it, if I had any "say-so". It could have been done with some thought, in my opinion. Subsequently, those same chips were being offered at STIFF premiums. If that sounds bitter, I'm not. It just strikes me as less of the "community" than it used to be and seemed to be the beginning of what I observe now.
I've bought and sold many chips at very reasonable prices, with my main goal being to not LOSE money so I could buy other chips. That doesn't seem to be the current condition (although it does not apply to EVERYONE).
I don't argue against the concept of "market", the fact that something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it: If someone is willing and able to pay a certain price, more power to them. I am your typical chip obsessed person who has a weird love for these round tokens but I will NEVER pay those prices, chip freak or not. I've been around a LONG time as a chip geek. BCC, ASM, TRK and Paulson were all selling to the public back then and prices were premium but within grasp of a "worker bee". I think I bought my first BCC set at .75 per chip for awesome chips. Like I stated in another post, gold and silver have not seen as much price appreciation as Paulson chips, in the same time frame. I'll keep my gold and silver.
There is still MUCH value to this forum in the form of information, chip design tools, photo galleries, etc. and access to the myriad of vendors here. So I still support this forum and the above is strictly MY opinion based on what I have observed over a long time.
Welcome back to the "hobby".
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I understand your frustration. Especially being in the community over 15 years and seeing the changes has been shocking. From my limited knowledge though I don't see things getting better or changing positively for those of us that want clay chips. The only things that would help would be TR King reversing their decision to keep their formulas/process secret (not going to happen) or Paulson reopening their position (not going to happen any time soon if they are turning down $500,000 offers). Im praying CPC can stay afloat with the challenges they face. My apologies Heather for hijacking your post.
 
I hope no one misunderstands my post as a hijack/rant. My comments were directed to Heather who stated she was a chipper way back and has been out for 10 years. It was intended to bring her up to speed on what to expect and some of the things that have happened in her long hiatus. :)
 
KingZilla said:
I hope no one misunderstands my post as a hijack/rant. My comments were directed to Heather who stated she was a chipper way back and has been out for 10 years. It was intended to bring her up to speed on what to expect and some of the things that have happened in her long hiatus. :)
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I understood. It appears there is a decent group of us that has returned recently and I believe we all feel similarly.
 
lt's so wonderful to see so many familiar names. It's hard to find an opportunity to contribute to conversations, but I have been reading and looking at chips. Thinking back to when I was more active, it's seems like I didn't realize quite how lucky we were to have so many manufacturers willing to serve the home/fantasy chip market. Even if you couldn't afford a custom set, so many others were designing dream sets that there was a lot of eye candy and tremendous creativity.

I need to take and post pictures. I have a set of Egyptians with octagons as 1Ks, a set of oversized zombies, and a set of hot-stamped T molds from the group design. I also have several $1 chips from casinos that my father-in-law has collected for me. I'll hopefully get those pictures posted soon.

Hi Martha!
 
Welcome. Looking forward to seeing pics of the chips that you have.
Prices have skyrocketed, but on the other side of the coin, there are more options available for every price point. Some may not appreciate the introduction to the no-molds and card-molds, but it does gives the ability to customize in ones budget.
Not everyone can afford to spend thousands on a set of chips.
 
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I e been here the whole time, and am just as disappointed as those returning to find what has occurred like the aforementioned loss of more of a community feeling when it comes to secret buys. Even though I’ve been here and active, I’ve not been included in any of these secret deals and am shocked at the money grab that happened. But, there are still good people and deals to be had and you will find them.
 
BPTDirector said:
I e been here the whole time, and am just as disappointed as those returning to find what has occurred like the aforementioned loss of more of a community feeling when it comes to secret buys. Even though I’ve been here and active, I’ve not been included in any of these secret deals and am shocked at the money grab that happened. But, there are still good people and deals to be had and you will find them.
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Yup. There are still plenty of us who don’t try to profit on every chip sale. Not everybody views this as a for-profit-market.
 

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