Possible new Stock designs. (4 Viewers)

PLEASE REMEMBER when commenting that stock sets are generally purchased as gifts etc. by people that don't really know what they want/can't wait for custom anyway, so the readers here are not really the 'market'.

I have never understood the attraction to an imaginary inlay theme. If I didn’t know what I wanted I would prefer a well executed generic classy inlay design without a theme. I would never spend that much money on a chip with a radom circus theme or imaginary casino. (Actually I personally wouldn’t spend any amount of money on something like that)

Something like this is what I wish you would make. These, IMO are the classiest non custom chips ever made....ESPECIALLY the Paulsons!
85FDCBB3-5397-4722-9EE8-1BE978073C56.jpeg
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I have never understood the attraction to an imaginary inlay theme. If I didn’t know what I wanted I would prefer a well executed generic classy inlay design without a theme. I would never spend that much money on a chip with a radom circus theme or imaginary casino. (Actually I personally wouldn’t spend any amount of money on something like that)

Something like this is what I wish you would make. These, IMO are the classiest non custom chips ever made....ESPECIALLY the Paulsons!


+1 one on this. When I was a newbie looking for chips I didn't understand the fascination with a fake casino named chip. Give me simple, readable, denominations on interesting chips.

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I have never understood the attraction to an imaginary inlay theme. If I didn’t know what I wanted I would prefer a well executed generic classy inlay design without a theme. I would never spend that much money on a chip with a radom circus theme or imaginary casino. (Actually I personally wouldn’t spend any amount of money on something like that)

Something like this is what I wish you would make. These, IMO are the classiest non custom chips ever made....ESPECIALLY the Paulsons!
View attachment 208883View attachment 208884
NAILED IT!
 
I have never understood the attraction to an imaginary inlay theme. If I didn’t know what I wanted I would prefer a well executed generic classy inlay design without a theme. I would never spend that much money on a chip with a radom circus theme or imaginary casino. (Actually I personally wouldn’t spend any amount of money on something like that)

Something like this is what I wish you would make. These, IMO are the classiest non custom chips ever made....ESPECIALLY the Paulsons!
View attachment 208883View attachment 208884

I’d love to see CPC put together a stock set similar to the Protégés! Maybe a slight revamp on the colors, but the spot progression is great and are available from CPC!
 
Not sure this can be done. I would love to see stock blank chips with a recess so anyone can create labels to be placed. Just have 1 mold with exceptional colors and spot patterns at david’s choice and price point. Maybe a cpc house mold? Create a market like Paulson mold. That way you don’t have to defend imitating a casino’s mold and have something unique.
If it were priced right with large stockpile, I think chippers would buy without breaking the bank or asking for something too cheap. Not looking to pay $900 but know value can’t be had at $500 either.
 
I’m going to give my thoughts/input

SQINCIRC mold with 314 pattern
Color matched inlay with large denomination
Some inordinate background (as suggested above with Noirs & Protege)
But if you have to use words/theme (removing background design) maybe game room or lounge to stay away from poker/casino/card room. Maybe have it so they can customize the name of the room lounge as suggested earlier (not sure of production impact).

This is based on my groups response from when I brought out a set and got many comments that this was the best set I owned. I may not have the greatest sets but they have used some quality sets in the past. We as a group focus on the design and progression, most people don’t.
 
The edge spot pattern would be less important to me than having a nice classy denomination based generic inlay.

Did I understand you can only do the A mold? If not I agree with others that a simple mold design would be best like circle square. The edge spot sequence of the rounders set (different colors though) would be cool but I like the quarter spots too.

I really think if you had an inlay design like the Paulson noirs you would be selling them for a long time as a stock chip. No “club” or “lounge”. Just the numerical and written denominations . Maybe just change the colors or a minor update in the art work every few years.
 
Not sure this can be done. I would love to see stock blank chips with a recess so anyone can create labels to be placed. Just have 1 mold with exceptional colors and spot patterns at david’s choice and price point. Maybe a cpc house mold? Create a market like Paulson mold. That way you don’t have to defend imitating a casino’s mold and have something unique.
If it were priced right with large stockpile, I think chippers would buy without breaking the bank or asking for something too cheap. Not looking to pay $900 but know value can’t be had at $500 either.

No, not possible to do.
 
The edge spot pattern would be less important to me than having a nice classy denomination based generic inlay.

Did I understand you can only do the A mold? If not I agree with others that a simple mold design would be best like circle square. The edge spot sequence of the rounders set (different colors though) would be cool but I like the quarter spots too.

I really think if you had an inlay design like the Paulson noirs you would be selling them for a long time as a stock chip. No “club” or “lounge”. Just the numerical and written denominations . Maybe just change the colors or a minor update in the art work every few years.

What I said was it can only be Amold if it was going to include 'options'. A fixed set could be anything but price will go up accordingly.
 
Just out of curiosity, what is special about the A-mold? Why does this mold run so often?
 
Just out of curiosity, what is special about the A-mold? Why does this mold run so often?

Approximately 50% of all custom orders are placed on the A-mold, therefore it is in use every day of the year and permanently installed.
 
I'm not sure if too many people from your target customer group for these are particularly interested in somewhat "childish" themes like circus. I guess your safest bet is rehashing a "classy" theme like those mentioned topsellers like Pharaohs in very high quality, or not roll with a theme (something like a generic "private card room" doesn't count as a theme for me though) at all and just go with nicely designed denominations on the chips, nothing else.

Also, if you want to keep the price point down and therefore massively limit the spot level, you definitely need to deliver an exceptional inlay design to pull the overall appearance out of the mud. China Clays already have much nicer spot patterns than what you have in your current stock chip offers and that at a much lower price point. Their downsides are quality (about which your target customers probably don't know too much about however) and somewhat lame label design (which remains the factor you can influence).

The all-quarter pie idea might actually be one of the best spot picks as I can't recall seeing any recent stock chips with that pattern - so despite the design being relatively simple, it's something previously unavailable or mostly unknown on the mass market - a fresh look. Also would lend itself well to a modern, minimalistic but sleek inlay design well, particularly the 3C variant.

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I would also strongly consider trying to design a set with Cali colors instead of traditional colors, which would also give the majority of your potential customers (everyone except people from CA) something "fresh" and unseen.

Edit: It might already do a lot if you step it up from bi-color chips to tri-color on every chip (four-color if possible).
With a mix of 2A12, 4A12, 3A14, 3A12/3A916, 4A14, 6A14, 4DSA316, 3D14, 4D14 which are all L4 or lower one could probably already make a set that already looks fairly solid even without an inlay (which would then improve the looks even more).

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I'm not sure if too many people from your target customer group for these are particularly interested in somewhat "childish" themes like circus. I guess your safest bet is rehashing a "classy" theme like those mentioned topsellers like Pharaohs in very high quality, or not roll with a theme (something like a generic "private card room" doesn't count as a theme for me though) at all and just go with nicely designed denominations on the chips, nothing else.

Also, if you want to keep the price point down and therefore massively limit the spot level, you definitely need to deliver an exceptional inlay design to pull the overall appearance out of the mud. China Clays already have much nicer spot patterns than what you have in your current stock chip offers and that at a much lower price point. Their downsides are quality (about which your target customers probably don't know too much about however) and somewhat lame label design (which remains the factor you can influence).

The all-quarter pie idea might actually be one of the best spot picks as I can't recall seeing any recent stock chips with that pattern - so despite the design being relatively simple, it's something previously unavailable or mostly unknown on the mass market - a fresh look. Also would lend itself well to a modern, minimalistic but sleek inlay design well, particularly the 3C variant.

View attachment 208962

I would also strongly consider trying to design a set with Cali colors instead of traditional colors, which would also give the majority of your potential customers (everyone except people from CA) something "fresh" and unseen.

3C pies cannot be produced cheaply even in bulk, only works for 2C's.
I think you'd run into problems with a mixed stack using those colors :)

Of course China Clay's are cheaper - they are injection molded plastic :) We do still have a minimum 60% actual clay (as in 'powder out of the ground') in ours.

We had an attempt at the Paulson style route before and it was rejected. It would have to be a completely new theme I think. Even when I proposed something that was only vaguely like an old design there was a copyright suit threatened.

The general feeling was that once the price point approached that of a custom set, customers would indeed go the custom route and wait the time.

As I said in the OP, might be better to throw this open in competition form as I don't really have much time to devote to it now.
 
There are some additional external factors that readers might not appreciate.
To be able to create a stock set at an affordable price (ie less than it's custom equivalent) we not only have to make it on an efficient mold and in quantity, but we also have to either utilise commonly occurring spare parts or some spots have to match other body colors.
That all had a bearing on the sets we offer currently.
 
What I meant with the China Clays and quality -- of course they are plastic and yours are actual clay, but I think the non-conoisseur shopping for stock chips doesn't value that attribute to the full extent. Some might opt for a higher quality option but I don't think most of them will do so if that means the chips look much more bland, particularly if the price is much higher. They will value the looks higher, particularly if it's supposed to be a gift.

It might help though if you detailed on what kind of spare parts in what colors are commonly left over so we can integrate that in our design attempts.
 
I'm guessing David means, for example, punching 312s out of a red chip and using that 312 punch out as a spot color in a 312 of a different base color.

David, are most of your stock chip sales in the US? I'm wondering if a patriotic theme would sell well.
 
I'm guessing David means, for example, punching 312s out of a red chip and using that 312 punch out as a spot color in a 312 of a different base color.

David, are most of your stock chip sales in the US? I'm wondering if a patriotic theme would sell well.

Yes that's what I meant. Also, sometimes you might do a very big order that say contained 10000 yellow 614's. You then get 60000 1/4 yellow spots left. But that is a bit of a moving target.

They are mostly in the US, yes. There is already one patriotic theme (which 10 years ago was a very big seller)
 
Can those punch outs be re-worked into clay and then be used as a base?

What are the common colors that make it more cost-effective?

What about a PNY-style patriotic theme? Rushmore, Lincoln Memorial, Liberty Bell, White House?

Or American city landmarks? St. Louis Arch, Brooklyn Bridge, Hollywood sign, etc. Architectural landmarks.
 
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We had an attempt at the Paulson style route before and it was rejected. It would have to be a completely new theme I think. Even when I proposed something that was only vaguely like an old design there was a copyright suit threatened.

What are you referring to by “Paulson style”? The Noir style inlays? Or a recreation of the entire chips with edge spots etc. I would hope that an artist could easily come up with a generic denomination only design that wouldn’t infringe on copyrights. I would imagine the design options are limitless.

Even something as simple as this would be preferable to an imaginary theme.

PS: I’m fascinated the A mold is more popular than circle square!
 

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What are you referring to by “Paulson style”? The Noir style inlays? Or a recreation of the entire chips with edge spots etc. I would hope that an artist could easily come up with a generic denomination only design that wouldn’t infringe on copyrights. I would imagine the design options are limitless.

Even something as simple as this would be preferable to an imaginary theme.

PS: I’m fascinated the A mold is more popular than circle square!

I meant Top Hat & Cane, Pharaohs, Classics, Isthmus City, Nationals plus the Noirs and all other designs owned by the same people.
We can't do the spot pattern and in your first pic and the 2nd one would make the chips too expensive.
 
I meant Top Hat & Cane, Pharaohs, Classics, Isthmus City, Nationals plus the Noirs and all other designs owned by the same people.
We can't do the spot pattern and in your first pic and the 2nd one would make the chips too expensive.

Ok, gotcha. Just to clarify, my comments are 99% geared toward the inlay designs. For me, and I what I believe would be a large number of potential buyers, a generic denomination only inlay design is the best selling point. The edge spots and even mold could be what ever. I think the market you are targeting would find any edge spot design impressive compared to the simple white spots on cheap plastic chips. Something like the 312 or 412 would be totally fine

I think the big market for these would be the person who wants to class up his game and take it to the next level. Probably has a nice table and is using plastic cards. Now his dice chips look out of place. He sees the option for customs but either doesn’t have the imagination for it or doesn’t want to spend quite that much and/or wait so long. What doesn’t make sense to him is a chip that says “Monte Carlo”, “Vegas Vic’s”, “Texas Tim’s Poker Lounge” or anything like that. He just wants a clay chip that looks and feels like a casino chip and has a non descriptive classy design. Denominations on the traditional colors also help him get that casino like feel as well.

The second market for these would be people like who are on this forum who want a nice secondary cash or tourney set but don’t want to go full custom .
 
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So the key to keeping material costs down is to re-use the cut out spots in other chips? Sounds like an optimization problem :)

Here's an attempt for a 400 chip set:

100x White
100x Red
100x Green
50x Black
50x Purple

1600 spots created and all used using 414 pattern leaving no spare spots:
Optimized.png
 
So the key to keeping material costs down is to re-use the cut out spots in other chips? Sounds like an optimization problem :)

Here's an attempt for a 400 chip set:

100x White
100x Red
100x Green
50x Black
50x Purple

1600 spots created and all used using 414 pattern leaving no spare spots:
View attachment 209014

Materials are only 10% of the cost. It's more assembly time. 4A14 is a lot more work than 414, which again is a lot more than 314 or 312. Hence they are Levels 3, 2, 1. Higher level also means more rejects. That's why I said Level 1 in the OP.
 
Something like this is the most efficient.
It minimises punching, material & assembly, and using the most common colors means any excess parts would quickly get used elsewhere.
Although the website shows suggested make-ups for 300 & 500 sets, most people vary them and because they buy them for a mixture of low limit/high limit/tourney/heads up we actually sell a pretty even quantity of each denom. Can equally be done with 312 or 2 of one and 4 of the other. If someone calculated it right they could make it work from a progressive mix of all the Level 1's. I did that for a very large order once.
stock test.jpg
 
Of the colors you used I like this combo. I don’t know how to share the full screen shown above
 

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