Sky Blue Starbursts (1 Viewer)

[MemphisFats]

Hey guys I’m looking for some help and input.
I just bought some old Paulson starbursts. Half were loose in a box and half in an old Paulson box which someone had wrote ‘Sky Blue’ on. I assumed all the chips were sky Blue. Upon closer inspection they are two different shades of blue, one lighter and one darker, but they do not seem far enough apart to be different colours.
Is it common to get different shades of the same colour, due to being from different production batches, different amounts of use, different methods of storage etc.
I do not have any Paulson colour samples which obviously makes this task much more difficult!
I do plan on putting these up for auction soon but want to work out the colour before I do.
Riviera Danny sent me a few pictures of Paulson colour samples but they don’t really make figuring this out any easier.
Any input would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Memphis

 

[BSteck]

Some color variance with starburst colors isn't uncommon. But that certainly does seem excessive. Like that top rack was faded or something. You could try cleaning and oiling them to see if that changes anything.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[SpaceMonkey420]

Trippy. Maybe faded in the different temps? I feel like light would only alter the edges or sides exposed. Either way they seem pretty cool. With 20+ Paulson “blue” colors another one won’t hurt. Lol

 

[allforcharity]

That difference is quite stark. Paulson has more blue than anything else, but they don't really have that many versions of very light blue. Is it possible that long exposure to sunlight/UV caused fading of the lighter chips (but would be strange for it to be so even)? And yes, probably in the earlier days (1970s/80s) there was a little more prominent colour variation straight from the factory from different batches made months or years apart. I had some Reno roulettes that had obvious shade differences in their Yellow chips even though they would only have used one Yellow colour in their lineup.

 

[BSteck]

Yah - with the evenness of the fading you’d kinda think it might be due to storage heat or humidity or something.

 

[MemphisFats]

Thanks everyone for your input.
So are we basically thinking that are they same colour (Sky Blue) but somehow, maybe through storage, a different shade?
Should I list them all for sale in a single listing clearing showing the different shades? I want to make sure buyers are fully aware of what they are getting.
Thanks
Memphis

 

[BSteck]

Do you have any blue casino chips you can show with the Starbursts? (Like Paris or Flamingo)

That can help compare the colors with lighting and camera differences.

 

[MemphisFats]

I actually have the same issue with some red/pink, possibly Radiant Red, Starbursts that were in the same box. Half are lighter and half are darker.
This person must have stored some of their chips somewhere weird, maybe in a hot mechanical room or something? How strange!!

 

[MemphisFats]

I don’t have any loose casino chips, these are chips in my framed display.

 

[MemphisFats]

Here’s pictures of the light and dark pink/red.

 

[CrazyEddie]

My guess is that there's just a ton of shade variation across different batches and that we Starburst collectors are the ones most screwed by it.

Here's a couple pictures of peach racks that have sold recently:

Now, maybe some of that is due to dirt... but I think besides that there's just a bunch of natural variation.

One thing to remember is that Starbursts were part of Paulson's home line. They literally dumped whatever crap they couldn't otherwise use into their retail stores after putting a cancel stamp on it. I have a mint 300-chip set of Starbs in a retail case that includes 50 green chips that are roughly munzell green but which were hotstamped "Dark Green" before being overstamped with the starburst. My guess is they made these for a color sample, stamped them with the wrong name, realized their mistake, overstamped them, and shipped them out to retail.

... my point being that color consistency between batches probably wasn't their highest priority for chips like these. Casino orders, they probably worked harder at it; the casinos might well reject the order if the colors were too badly off.

 

[SpaceMonkey420]

Might of been cleaned with some weird chem soap or bleach too.