We have been talking via PM Justin, but others that may still be curious on the subject... I feel like everyone knows my opinions and those that took the opposition and defending cards molds... well I am willing to bet none of them have banked 200 hours on their sets yet... and very curious of what their opinions will be when they start hitting that range.
My set of cards molds are fantastic and have exactly zero hours banked on them thus far
But the set that did have around 200 hours banked on them were slippery as hell, I don't even know how to count the # of spinners... over half. My personal opinion would be to stay away from those chips.
As far as "no molds" I feel like we're are referencing ceramic blanks... my experience with those are the original "
scrub donkey" chips from the group buy ran by
@Marhault , and countless hours spent on designs by
@Kensco and artwork by the amazing
@BonScot and from my understanding these were made by Tina
I love everything about these chips for the price point they were at. Literally nothing but compliments years later from chippers and non chippers alike. We only have maybe 16 - 20 hours banked but the heavy texture feels like it is made for the long haul! I would recommend these chips.
But hands down my favorite Tina chips are the Hybrid Ceramics with the textured inlays
I haven't found any with "spinning issues" and I believe that is due to less surface area touching and also they have an almost rubber feel to them, very grippy but also still a great weight and the textured inlay is 100 times better than the "printed on" face of the cards molds
Unlike the sunfly inlays these are all perfectly laying flat within the recess. These have a matte finish and they are fantastic on the felt as the high gloos often have bad reflections from table lights, and if the inlays are not laying perfectly flat in the recess it can be quite tilting to the keen eye. Very high recommendation on these chips.
As far as 43mm cards molds, I was very excited... until I felt samples. The clank and feel felt very cheap to me, didn't like the sound, the feel. I was planning on ordering all 43mm and quickly changed to the 39mm hybrids.
Remeber everyone has their own opinion on chips, as the veterans will always suggest... never go off of others opinions, at this point there are hundreds of thousands of these chips in the market. Put out a wanted ad for a sample set or shuffle stack and someone will likely help you out so you can get a feel for each option yourself.
For anyone looking to make a bit more of an investment over all of these choices, I 100% recommend the "regular blanks" by our vendor here
@BR Pro Poker . I believe they still have some of the older chipco blanks and many here are fans of those, typically I would say "bring on the texture" but the regular blanks remind me of perfectly flat river stones. An absolutely perfect weight and just the right amount of grip.
How amazed was I in their quality? Well I added on twice to make this ready for anything and any stakes 2 table set.
If your heart is set on a 43mm ceramic set, even after complaining about the inlays laying flat... everything else about the Sunfly 43mm ceramic Hybrids it pretty amazing and as veteran chipper
@MegaTon44 has swapped out almost his entire collection to these I believe he would agree on their quality, feel and durability.
Hands down over clay this is my go to ready for anything chips. I have banked several uses on these and everyone loves them (except clay snobs! Lol).
There are many options out there in the ceramics (economy) line of poker chips. Again I highly suggest getting samples especially before investing in larger chip count sets.
Hope that helps folks
Ben