Update
I have now got my 525 SKYLINE chip set from pokershop.de and I am really happy with them overall.
I chose them because I liked the design the most: nice chip face design and large denominations without currency symbol, no stickers that might peel off, nice edge spots, a symmetric face (front to back), durability and great colors.
But of course, they come with some flaws (which actually hurts at ~€0.70 per chip):
- Typical for ceramic chips, they are a bit slippery. However, they are a bit less slippery than the samples I ordered. But this doesn't really bother me, since they still stack nicely
- There are a few spinners (so chips which are not totally flat). Out of the 525 I'd say maybe 10-20, but none of them are really badly deformed
- They all have a quite noticeable injection point on the edge. However, it doesn't really stand out, so that's only a minor drawback and it's mainly noticeable on the T25s and T500s
- Also compared to the samples I got, my new set from the production is a bit chalky. More specifically the edges. This is a bit strange, since it does not look like real chalk as on some of the china-clay samples I got. But you see the difference compared to the single sample chips I got (samples look a little brighter and shinier on the edges). Has anyone made the same observation? Am I supposed to do any specific cleaning with ceramic chips or even oil them
?
- Rarely, the "inlay" print is not perfectly centered, but this is hard to notice with the eye and requires some time of staring at the chip before you see it. It may be offset by about 1 mm or less, so just a slight imperfection here and there. But the overall face design with the edge spots hides that well.
- Finally, what bothers me most: the "aligned edge spots" that are advertised so prominently are often not so aligned. For a perfectionist like me, this is really a bummer. One or two out of the four edge spots of a chip are sometimes slightly misaligned (so the face compared to the edge). For the majority of chips, it's only a slight misalignment with an offset <0,5mm, but I still wonder how this happens at this chip price and with today's production capabilities. But what do I know It's definitly noticable, although there are only a few with a really strong misalignment. But that was something I noticed about all the ceramic chips I ordered from pokershop.de (the producer is probably Anita in China)
So in summary, I am still very happy with this set, since it fulfilled nearly all of my requirements and I love the look. They also just got into action at my first tournament and I will definitely keep them in my "collection".
Now the reality
But as many of you already predicted (looking at you
@bruh and
@Eriks), I must apologize for my previous statements and admit it: I am looking for some Paulsons now. After reading and watching more and more about them, and looking at those imperfections from my set now, I really want to own a set of those gold standard Paulson chips. And since I want to build a cash set anyway, I am now looking for some "affordable" Paulsons, which is quite difficult, since they are not produced for the retail market anymore as you all know.
So maybe you can give me a hand with this. I am looking for a set of Paulsons for
1,50€ - max. 3€ a chip. I know I should not look on ebay, that's were I've only found those crazy numbers, like 6k for a set or 30€/chip... crazy people. I also know that Paulsons once produced chips for the consumer market. But I don't like most of the designs (like the classics or tophat&cane or james bonds or national poker series. Yes probably very controversial opinion
).
The only one I really like and am currently looking for are the
Paulsons Pharao's. I was also thinking about getting the cheaper china clay version which is sold by Apache Pokerchips (because I like the samples), but I think I will end up in the same place and just want the real Paulson ones. So far in my research, I have not seen a single seller/webstore that sells these. And on ebay you can only find like 30 chips for 120€. So many people say this is the right place to buy some chips, but then I feel like its even more difficult to get some to germany, since most people here are based in the US.
I also know that there are a lot more official Paulson chips sold on the Marketplace, like horseshoes (they also have a few nice designs) and I am just digging into this hole, but I really have to say that I am not a fan of most real casino chip designs. Paulsons Pharaoh's are just about right.
But my question is now: where do you guys get your Paulsons? Does anyone have experience with shipping to germany or getting some in the EU? And although I think I can answer my question myself: this forum is basically the only place to buy Paulsons from other collectors, right? Do you think I'll get some in my price range? And is "Marketplace/For Sale" the right place to be looking?
Thanks so much, your help is highly appreciated for a newbie like me
Classifieds or vendors like Broken Arrow or Key Wests from 
/ or the versa from pokershop.de?
