Paulson Starburst prices (1 Viewer)

[Taghkanic]

I was watching five eBay auctions today from the same seller of Paulson TH&C Starbursts... There were multiple, late bidders on each of the lots (100 chips per lot, except one of 98). All were in the original milky plastic Paulson boxes.

Prices were $120, $130, $137, $173 and $213, rounding up to the nearest dollar. I didn’t win any of the auctions.

Several lots appeared to be mint or near-mint condition, each one a solid color, with one mixed lot (the 98-piece one). This seemed to be the less-desirable chips pulled from three of the others, with some edge nicks/wear. None appeared to be overprints.

Last year I paid about $900 for a four-color set of 1,000 total Starbursts with monograms in an original case, and some seemed to think that was high. I have since felt I got a solid deal, as the chips appeared to have never been used, and they have been a big hit in my home tourney (two tables). They really play beautifully.

Seeing the interest today, I feel even better about my purchase... Seems like there is some inflation in the prices of these chips. Or maybe it was a fluke due to a couple of determined buyers.

Today’s sales averaged out to about $1.55 per chip. Maybe prices on these were higher at one time, but over the time I’ve been collecting them, there seems to be a slow but steady increase. Certainly, they aren’t making any more of these... Thoughts?

 

[Pokerdweebz]

I was following these as well. I was hoping to finish building a starburst/stamped tournament and cash set, but I think I might give up with these prices. I remember thinking I overpaid (well I probably did at the time) paying $125 for a rack of hot pink starburst, but I remember seeing a rack go for ~$200 or more in the last year.

 

[Irish]

Was watching those auctions as well, that was pretty crazy. I think some of that has to do with the colors (orange was the highest), but also because there haven't been a lot of these chips listed in a while, these are first I've seen in probably 6 months (on eBay). That often creates these little bidding wars that drives up the price. I started building my set around 2 years, I was able to get most of them, in smaller quantities (1-5 barrels), which usually drives up the price, for $1 to $1.5 a chip. Certain colors like blaze orange, day blue/green, yellow & hot pink will always command a premium, but for a rack of charcoals to go for $170+ plus shipping is crazy. The same guy purchased all of them, so someone wanted these pretty bad.

 

[RainmanTrail]

I overbid on the charcoals at $170 and lost on them. I thought I'd probably win them with that bid. Although, it wasn't a snipe... But it's mainly about colors. The pics this seller posted of the orange chips looked like they might be blaze orange in the first couple of photos, but I'm fairly confident they are actually carrot orange. The buyer will probably be disappointed.

But ya, Paulson starburst prices are ENTIRELY about the colors first, condition second. Many chippers are unaware of just how much of a difference it actually makes. Want to see some starbursts really shock you? Post a rack of mint Yellows or mint Hot Pink or mint Blaze Orange and title them as such in the listing... They'll all pull close to $250 per rack, possibly more, and almost never below $200.

 

[Psypher1000]

Want to see some starbursts really shock you? Post a rack of mint Yellows or mint Hot Pink or mint Blaze Orange and title them as such in the listing... They'll all pull close to $250 per rack, possibly more, and almost never below $200.

Precisely this.

 

[ceramicmike]

I bid on the Orange, green and mixed lot. I didn't win

 

[Taghkanic]

From the looks of it, the winning bidder put in an upper limit of about $250 late in each auction. I was mainly interested in the charcoals, but not at those prices.

I have been able to pick up small quantities of Starbursts (meaning 15-30 chips) in the $0.60-$1.20 range on eBay over the past 6-8 months, but sometimes got gouged on shipping. I assume the winner will negotiate some combined shipping. Or maybe money is no object here.

 

[allforcharity]

I was watching all of these, too. Not really to bid, but to see how far the bidding got. Answer = quite far.

 

[Taghkanic]

I participated in some more eBay Starburst auctions recently, in which two different sellers were selling multiple lots of 15-100 chips. The prices ran from about 80 cents per chip to about $1.40 per chip, averaging about a buck each. These sold mostly lower than the ones a couple weeks ago, but slightly higher than I’m used to. About $1 each seems to be the new going rate at least for that kind of sale.

Was mainly bummed to miss out on a lot of 50 “brown” chips—probably Chocolate, though Maroon seems to tend toward brown as well in my samples... It’s a color I haven’t seen come up much, but which actually went for less than most of the others. Lots track of those in a flurry of bidding. Seemed kind of odd that two different sellers had auctions ending right around the same time.

 

[lzabel18]

So I’ve come across a large set of chips, seems half are starburst and half are mermaids.. where would I sell them other then eBay?

 

[ovo]

The Fuchsia rack listed right now is of interest to me, for the color, but it could also be Rose in poor lighting

 

[Taghkanic]

You could sell them here, right?

 

[Taghkanic]

The probably-Fuschias went for $212.50 for 100 chips. I was an underbidder topping out at about half that. I guess that color really is choice, or else there were buyers who really needed to complete some sets.

One odd thing is that $212.50 is exactly the same price as was paid on that earlier auction of oranges which instigated me to post about Starburst values.

 

[Taghkanic]

So I’ve come across a large set of chips, seems half are starburst and half are mermaids.. where would I sell them other then eBay?

Sent you a direct message, Izabel.

 

[BSteck]

The probably-Fuschias went for $212.50 for 100 chips. I was an underbidder topping out at about half that. I guess that color really is choice, or else there were buyers who really needed to complete some sets.

Or maybe someone just really likes pink chips.

 

[Lemonzest]

I overbid on the charcoals at $170 and lost on them. I thought I'd probably win them with that bid. Although, it wasn't a snipe... But it's mainly about colors. The pics this seller posted of the orange chips looked like they might be blaze orange in the first couple of photos, but I'm fairly confident they are actually carrot orange. The buyer will probably be disappointed.

But ya, Paulson starburst prices are ENTIRELY about the colors first, condition second. Many chippers are unaware of just how much of a difference it actually makes. Want to see some starbursts really shock you? Post a rack of mint Yellows or mint Hot Pink or mint Blaze Orange and title them as such in the listing... They'll all pull close to $250 per rack, possibly more, and almost never below $200.

Interesting thanks. I was always assuming Starbursts should be around a dollar per chip but what you explained makes mucho sense.

 

[Taghkanic]

I recently bought a lot of about 100 Charcoals... About half were really sharp, beautiful chips: clean edges, hot stamps bright and unworn. The other half were more used, with rounder edges and the Starbursts rubbing off. All of them are playable—arguably, you could even say the worn ones shuffle better. But I would rather start with fresh chips and let my game slowly wear them down. So I would pay a premium for mint/near mint chips, and think condition does matter a lot. Problem is on eBay, a lot of the best deals are from sellers who aren’t chippers, so you kind of have to badger people for extra photos, or just take some risks...

 

[Taghkanic]

I wonder what would happen to the prices of Paulson Starburst solids if GPI got back into the home market. Would the older, vintage ones plummet in value, or become more collector’s items? (This is assuming that they resumed issuing the same type of chips, rather than a new design.)

Seems to me they are really missing out on a big audience, but presumably they had their reasons for bailing on this type of production.

 

[Joe E.]

I wonder what would happen to the prices of Paulson Starburst solids if GPI got back into the home market. Would the older, vintage ones plummet in value, or become more collector’s items? (This is assuming that they resumed issuing the same type of chips, rather than a new design.)

Seems to me they are really missing out on a big audience, but presumably they had their reasons for bailing on this type of production.

doubtful they would be able to recreate the weight with the lead restrictions so I don't think the value of the older ones would suffer much, if any.

 

[Taghkanic]

doubtful they would be able to recreate the weight with the lead restrictions so I don't think the value of the older ones would suffer much, if any.

Hmmm... Didn’t they eliminate/reduce lead long before they stopped making these sets?

 

[BSteck]

There's just so many variables that go into how much I'm willing to pay for a particular chip that it's hard to peg a precise value to a style of chips.

Obviously, the fuschia starbursts were worth $2 a chip to me because:

1. The seller had taken some great pictures and you could clearly see that these were mint condition
2. There was a whole rack available - color variance in starbursts is a bitch (to me anyway) and so I was willing to pay a little more for a complete rack
3. Fuschia is not a common color to find
4. I got the sense the seller was a chipper. Which was confirmed when the chips arrived packaged awesomely.

But also (and this is the personal variables)

1. I've been on the lookout for 50 more red starbursts to fill out a rack. But was always concerned about the color variance issue. So this rack really fit my needs and so I was willing to pay a little more.
2. I've gotten some pretty good deals on recent chip purchases and so I was able to convince myself using some convoluted chip-cost-averaging-strategy logic that I could spend a little more for these chips.
3. Just last week the wifie saw a stack of my PdC $5's and said "oooooo... what a pretty color! I don't think I've ever seen that color in your chips before". So yah... I totally got them for her.
4. I really, really like pink chips.

So some might look at that eBay sale and say the new going rate for mint Starbursts is $2/chip. But there's so many personal reason why I willing to slightly overpay for these.

 

[Taghkanic]

1. I've gotten some pretty good deals on recent chip purchases and so I was able to convince myself using some convoluted chip-cost-averaging-strategy logic that I could spend a little more for these chips.

LOL. Know where you’re coming from there.