Psypher1000
Straight Flush
First, the actual breakdown received:
$100's - 4000+ (all used, all two racks prior)
$25's - 4600+ (all used; all prior rack; ~1000 Good, ~1000 Used/Serviceable, ~2600 Used/Unserviceable)
$5's - 4600+ (all used; all prior rack; ~200 Good, ~600 Used/Serviceable, ~3800 Used/Unserviceable - OUCH!!!)
$1's - 11600+ (all prior rack; ~4700 New, ~2500 Used/Good condition, the rest Used/Serviceable)
That means 6400 of the chips received were ultimately trashed by me, and the real heartbreaker was those $5's, as those would have made sales much, much easier. Having only 800 be viable was a real punch to the gut...and the wallet.
The Initial Offering
When the chips first came available, the breakdown I was initially provided with is as follows:
$100's - ~4400
$25's - ~4900
$5's - ~6100
Snappers - ~2100
$1's - ~7000
That breakdown seemed reasonable to me, and I figured I could make something of it. This is the scan I received as a representative sample of the *worst* of the chips I would receive:
A snap decision was needed and I pulled the trigger. I figured if that was the worst of the $5's, I could probably make something of the rest.
The Wait
I pulled the trigger on 8/2/2016 and submitted payment on 8/3.
Two weeks later, nothing.
A month later...nothing.
Two months later... *still* nothing.
It took over TEN WEEKS to actually receive the chips, partly due to the Washington gaming authority taking their sweet ass time to show up and officially decommission the rack, but mostly just due to lack of give-a-shit from the casino. In the meantime the Horseshoe Cleveland pre-sale was announced and completed. I received adequate compensation for the delay, but man oh man did it hurt to not even receive these chips before that large chunk of demand was satisfied.
The Arrival
When the crate finally arrived on a half-palette, I was stoked...casino chips in GPI boxes (Riverside shipped the used chips in the GPI boxes they received, a decision that I was extremely grateful for)! I drilled open that bad boy and started cracking the interior boxes...first chips I saw were MINTY CHIPCO $1'S IN NEW CHIPCO RACKS!!! A whole damn box of them! Total score! I didn't crack the rest until I got home, which is just as well because...well, total disappointment. No snappers. Wrong counts. An outrageously high number of $1's. And worst of all...thousands of redbirds rendered useless either from excessive use or from a cleaning gone bad. Fortunately those new $1's were plentiful and would end up being my saving grace.
I theoretically could have argued to return the chips since what I received was so drastically different from what I was initially quoted. That also would have meant that I needed to fork over between $250-$500 in shipping, plus repackage everything and secure a pallete/crate since I had already scrapped the original shipping crate. Lesson learned: do a full inventory before destroying the shipping materials. I decided the path of least resistance was to stick with what I had and make a go of it.
Further Complications
Between AC Bwalk rounds 1 and 2, Horseshoe Cleveland, Horseshoe Cincy, and a few other lesser lots, the pent up demand for casino chips was largely satisfied - and at a higher quality than what I could generally offer. Rather than being able to make up my money in a few months, it was clear I'd have to play the long game now. Furthermore, in order to play by the rules I couldn't offer these in the Classifieds where they'd get maximum exposure. Instead, I had to "go legitimate" as a vendor just like Jim, Josh, et. al. do when offering their casino lots.That limits my audience to those who are either following me or paying attention to the vendor subforums This somewhat limits exposure. New posts and threads by vendors are still seen in the New Posts/New Threads section of the forum. Outside of that, my audience was limited to those who are either following me or paying attention to the vendor subforums, and those are comparatively smaller groups of chippers vs. those that follow/watch the general Classifieds section since I wasn't heretofore known as a casino chip vendor, nor did I have a mailing list I could make an announcement to. I knew this going in, however, and took that into account when deciding on whether or not to buy the chips. I accidentally helped my case a little bit by posting in the Classifieds that I had stuff for sale in the vendor subforums...and promptly got my wrist slapped and the post moved/deleted. I didn't realize at the time that such postings weren't permitted - that's my fail, and one for which I'm genuinely sorry and apologized for immediately. Fortunately a few people saw it before it was moved and that gave me a bit more exposure. Nonetheless...still needed to play the long game and get creative.
The Sorting
Ooof...my eyes are still a bit cross from this a bit. I literally sorted all 20k+ chips into piles based on quality. That took time. Thankfully, Netflix. This effort alone is enough to make someone question buying 20k+ used ceramic chips. Nonetheless, $1's were sorted into New, Good, and Used; and the rest were sorted into Good, Used, and Unserviceable. This is when I realized just how bad the situation was with the $5's
The Sales
Chips were broken into sets - Three cash sets, multiple heads-up sets, (eventually) one tournament set, and Lord-please-don't-let-me-down-here many racks and limit sets. In order to facilitate this, I reached out to Sal to have him come up with some replica chips. He completely knocked the quarters out of the park on the first shot - my jaw literally dropped when I opened up the shipment! - and the rest didn't take too many tweaks at all to get right. That's why I went to him. This wasn't his first rodeo when it comes to replica chips for ceramic casino sets; it shouldn't be his last. If you need extra denominations or filler chips to round out racks, by all means, hit him up!
My decisions here proved fruitful. The sets sold almost immediately. The tournament set took a little time to sell, but that's partly because I took a little time to have it made. I pondered whether or not to offer multiples of these, as I'd be out ~$70/rack of my own money before they sold in order to get them made, and that basically meant risking $120 in the hopes of making ~$160 in revenue. That seemed like bad EV, but I wanted to offer at least one tournament set so I pulled the trigger on those. That also allowed me to get some quantities made for sample sets. This decision ultimately paid off. I didn't make much money off of it, but I didn't lose any, and it ultimately led to some additional chips being purchased along with it.
The verdict
I didn't make as much money as I'd have liked to nor projected for various reasons, but I did make a small profit. Would I do it again? Probably not. It was an awful lot of work and frustration for relatively small monetary gain. Do I regret it? Not one bit! It's been a heck of a ride, and I'm glad a number of you got some great sets on the cheap!
Thanks to everyone for all your support during these sales, and for your decisions to capitalize on some of my offers! Special thanks to @Tommy, @OldWestPokerSupplies, and @TheChipRoom for walking me through the process, being patient with me, and helping me to bring it all to fruition and a successful conclusion.
$100's - 4000+ (all used, all two racks prior)
$25's - 4600+ (all used; all prior rack; ~1000 Good, ~1000 Used/Serviceable, ~2600 Used/Unserviceable)
$5's - 4600+ (all used; all prior rack; ~200 Good, ~600 Used/Serviceable, ~3800 Used/Unserviceable - OUCH!!!)
$1's - 11600+ (all prior rack; ~4700 New, ~2500 Used/Good condition, the rest Used/Serviceable)
That means 6400 of the chips received were ultimately trashed by me, and the real heartbreaker was those $5's, as those would have made sales much, much easier. Having only 800 be viable was a real punch to the gut...and the wallet.
The Initial Offering
When the chips first came available, the breakdown I was initially provided with is as follows:
$100's - ~4400
$25's - ~4900
$5's - ~6100
Snappers - ~2100
$1's - ~7000
That breakdown seemed reasonable to me, and I figured I could make something of it. This is the scan I received as a representative sample of the *worst* of the chips I would receive:
A snap decision was needed and I pulled the trigger. I figured if that was the worst of the $5's, I could probably make something of the rest.
The Wait
I pulled the trigger on 8/2/2016 and submitted payment on 8/3.
Two weeks later, nothing.
A month later...nothing.
Two months later... *still* nothing.
It took over TEN WEEKS to actually receive the chips, partly due to the Washington gaming authority taking their sweet ass time to show up and officially decommission the rack, but mostly just due to lack of give-a-shit from the casino. In the meantime the Horseshoe Cleveland pre-sale was announced and completed. I received adequate compensation for the delay, but man oh man did it hurt to not even receive these chips before that large chunk of demand was satisfied.
The Arrival
When the crate finally arrived on a half-palette, I was stoked...casino chips in GPI boxes (Riverside shipped the used chips in the GPI boxes they received, a decision that I was extremely grateful for)! I drilled open that bad boy and started cracking the interior boxes...first chips I saw were MINTY CHIPCO $1'S IN NEW CHIPCO RACKS!!! A whole damn box of them! Total score! I didn't crack the rest until I got home, which is just as well because...well, total disappointment. No snappers. Wrong counts. An outrageously high number of $1's. And worst of all...thousands of redbirds rendered useless either from excessive use or from a cleaning gone bad. Fortunately those new $1's were plentiful and would end up being my saving grace.
I theoretically could have argued to return the chips since what I received was so drastically different from what I was initially quoted. That also would have meant that I needed to fork over between $250-$500 in shipping, plus repackage everything and secure a pallete/crate since I had already scrapped the original shipping crate. Lesson learned: do a full inventory before destroying the shipping materials. I decided the path of least resistance was to stick with what I had and make a go of it.
Further Complications
Between AC Bwalk rounds 1 and 2, Horseshoe Cleveland, Horseshoe Cincy, and a few other lesser lots, the pent up demand for casino chips was largely satisfied - and at a higher quality than what I could generally offer. Rather than being able to make up my money in a few months, it was clear I'd have to play the long game now. Furthermore, in order to play by the rules I couldn't offer these in the Classifieds where they'd get maximum exposure. Instead, I had to "go legitimate" as a vendor just like Jim, Josh, et. al. do when offering their casino lots.
The Sorting
Ooof...my eyes are still a bit cross from this a bit. I literally sorted all 20k+ chips into piles based on quality. That took time. Thankfully, Netflix. This effort alone is enough to make someone question buying 20k+ used ceramic chips. Nonetheless, $1's were sorted into New, Good, and Used; and the rest were sorted into Good, Used, and Unserviceable. This is when I realized just how bad the situation was with the $5's
The Sales
Chips were broken into sets - Three cash sets, multiple heads-up sets, (eventually) one tournament set, and Lord-please-don't-let-me-down-here many racks and limit sets. In order to facilitate this, I reached out to Sal to have him come up with some replica chips. He completely knocked the quarters out of the park on the first shot - my jaw literally dropped when I opened up the shipment! - and the rest didn't take too many tweaks at all to get right. That's why I went to him. This wasn't his first rodeo when it comes to replica chips for ceramic casino sets; it shouldn't be his last. If you need extra denominations or filler chips to round out racks, by all means, hit him up!
My decisions here proved fruitful. The sets sold almost immediately. The tournament set took a little time to sell, but that's partly because I took a little time to have it made. I pondered whether or not to offer multiples of these, as I'd be out ~$70/rack of my own money before they sold in order to get them made, and that basically meant risking $120 in the hopes of making ~$160 in revenue. That seemed like bad EV, but I wanted to offer at least one tournament set so I pulled the trigger on those. That also allowed me to get some quantities made for sample sets. This decision ultimately paid off. I didn't make much money off of it, but I didn't lose any, and it ultimately led to some additional chips being purchased along with it.
The verdict
I didn't make as much money as I'd have liked to nor projected for various reasons, but I did make a small profit. Would I do it again? Probably not. It was an awful lot of work and frustration for relatively small monetary gain. Do I regret it? Not one bit! It's been a heck of a ride, and I'm glad a number of you got some great sets on the cheap!
Thanks to everyone for all your support during these sales, and for your decisions to capitalize on some of my offers! Special thanks to @Tommy, @OldWestPokerSupplies, and @TheChipRoom for walking me through the process, being patient with me, and helping me to bring it all to fruition and a successful conclusion.
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