Why inlays on Paulson chips are not aligned with each other? (1 Viewer)

lee123china

lee123china

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I bought some WTHC 1Ks recently and noticed that inlays on both sides are not aligned. Sometimes the inlay on the other side of the chip is completely upside down. Why doesn't Paulson make them align with each other so it looks more professional (in my opinion)?
 
^ That. Aligning would take far too much human effort by being conscientious as to orientation of the spots and labels. Paulson's production line is highly mechanized. And casinos probably don't care, so no reason to spend the money.

CPC, on the other hand, IS conscientious and takes pride in their high-end, hands on production, so they align inlays as a matter of course. But their production line is also a lot less automated than Paulson's. Much more of a handcrafted chip.
 
gopherblue said:
^ That. Aligning would take far too much human effort by being conscientious as to orientation of the spots and labels. Paulson's production line is highly mechanized. And casinos probably don't care, so no reason to spend the money.

CPC, on the other hand, IS conscientious and takes pride in their high-end, hands on production, so they align inlays as a matter of course. But their production line is also a lot less automated than Paulson's. Much more of a handcrafted chip.
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I have recently acquired some Wynn Year of the Rooster Limited chips (came out in 2017, in mint condition) through the forum and labels on them are perfectly aligned. But the WTHC I have are not. For me it's just not right to have unaligned patterns. High-end chips like Paulson should at least offer aligned option for their customers. I agree that probably people at casinos don't really care.

As for CPC, I have some Atlantic Club samples and some Key West samples. To be honest, the samples are of pretty bad qualities. The clay material looks dirty and some spot patterns are falling off. They also feel too chalky when you shuffle them. I like the feel of Paulson chips. It's like a right combination of clay and plastic. I know CPC is proud of their craftsmanship but I don't really see that on the samples. They are even more expensive than Paulson. I don't know if custom chips are gonna change my opinion. I've seen some beautiful custom chips on the forum.
 
lee123china said:
High-end chips like Paulson should at least offer aligned option for their customers. I agree that probably people at casinos don't really care.
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Paulson does offer this to their customers, but most likely at an additional cost due to the labor required in aligning the inlay.

There were 3 casinos I visited in St. Louis, MO that all had inlays aligned on their fractional chips.

IMG_5185.JPG

IMG_5186.JPG
 
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Ronoh said:
Oil them or play with them more. They break in nicely
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Do you have a technical note on oiling chips? I hear a lot about oiling but don't really know how to do it. And "falling off" is probably not the best words to describe it. My vocab is really limited as English is my second language...here is a close-up

IMG_0780.JPG
 
btbmason said:
There were 3 casinos I visited in St. Louis, MO that all had inlays aligned on their fractional chips.
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These chips are lovely! I love pink colors! Is it a common thing to use pink on fractional chips? Some $2.5s are pink too.

BGinGA said:
That was just an OCD worker doing his thing in San Luis one slow morning. :D
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OCD people are angels without wings.
 
lee123china said:
As for CPC, I have some Atlantic Club samples and some Key West samples. To be honest, the samples are of pretty bad qualities. The clay material looks dirty and some spot patterns are falling off. They also feel too chalky when you shuffle them.
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I didn't like CPC's at first. But after playing with other people's CPC sets I really got to like them a lot. I think they're great. They're not as good as Paulsons, or TRK's for that matter, but I'd rather play with CPC's and BCC's than anything else on the market. They're so much better than ceramics and Bud Jones and china clays. They're great chips. It's too bad they're so expensive, but it's tough to argue with the price when they're better than anything else on the consumer market.
 
lee123china said:
For me it's just not right to have unaligned patterns.
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Then Paulsons aren't for you.

lee123china said:
High-end chips like Paulson should at least offer aligned option for their customers.
Click to expand...
Some Paulson inlays are aligned, such as the 1980's Binion's Horseshoes and the Crystal Parks. That said, the CP inlay alignment looks dreadful. Those are older chips, though, and I don't know if they offer such allignment any longer. But even if they did, as you said...
lee123china said:
people at casinos don't really care.
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lee123china said:
some spot patterns are falling off.
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Huh? I don't know what you mean by the spot patterns "falling off". (Edit: Never mind. I think you mean "fading" or "wearing off" by the picture. The thing is, the spot color actually goes all the way through the chip. In other words, it's impossible for it to fade or wear off. What you're seeing is either clay/dye from the base color that's rubbed off onto the spot or base clay that got mixed into the spot color.)

lee123china said:
I like the feel of Paulson chips. It's like a right combination of clay and plastic.
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A lot of people like the feel of Paulsons, not just you. Unfortunately they don't sell to the home market anymore, so customized Paulsons aren't a realistic option. As for the difference in feel, that goes back to the process they used to create them. CPC chips are pressed at higher temps and the result is a harder finished product. What that means is the CPC chips will last longer for you than Paulsons will (although both should last quite a long time in home use).

lee123china said:
I know CPC is proud of their craftsmanship but I don't really see that on the samples.
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Fair enough. But at least take a look at the sets they've produced for us here and see the craftsmanship there.

lee123china said:
Is it a common thing to use pink on fractional chips?
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Somewhat, although fractionals are in pretty much every color. Pink and yellow are fairly common, though, and some states actually require them to be a specific color.
 
lee123china said:
As for CPC, I have some Atlantic Club samples and some Key West samples. To be honest, the samples are of pretty bad qualities. The clay material looks dirty and some spot patterns are falling off. They also feel too chalky when you shuffle them. I like the feel of Paulson chips. It's like a right combination of clay and plastic. I know CPC is proud of their craftsmanship but I don't really see that on the samples. They are even more expensive than Paulson. I don't know if custom chips are gonna change my opinion. I've seen some beautiful custom chips on the forum.
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Ok I will try to address because I've seen what he's talking about and think I can talk to it.

1. Clay material seems dirty

Two things here. You could be talking about the brass flakes in the weighted colors but I know you aren't. What you are referring to is the cross contamination of other colors and even sometimes minor bits of material into the clay. Yes. It's a very manual process making these chips and each chip / batch of chips can be different. So many different production runs spanning many years and many human hands.

The majority of CPC chips have no contamination. But I do see something in like 1% of chips. (Photos can be provided upon request) but I also have some Paulsons that have contamination too. It happens sometimes.


2. Edge spots falling off.

I know it seems crazy but if he's referring to the $25 Key West chip, I have an example of this in my own collection where the 312 spot seems to not have adhered correctly to the main chip. I have a tiny set of examples where the clay material actually seems "cracked" along the spot edge which I could easily see someone as saying it's "falling off". It's not really falling off.... it's just not a perfect adherence.

Again, photos upon request. I have this downstairs but I'm lazy at 5am.


3. Too chalky when shuffling.

CPC formula to me seems a bit on the harder side but I can attest that after the chips are broken into, they become soft and rounded and slide together like cold butter (unlike warm buttery goodness of Paulson).

Have to break em in. Take a little while. They only get better with age.


LASTLY...

When CPC chips are brand new, there is some chip dust in the mold. Wash it with warm water... hell even squirt a drop or two of mineral or baby oil in there while you're at it and that shit clears up real fast.

Just want to make sure that "dirty" isn't misinterpreted as just "dusty".
 
sorry @BGinGA , I understand now. Why would some Casablanca's be aligned, and some not ? I have to admit, I've always been suspicious, since my aligned chips look like they have been milled and a new label applied , but what do I know .
 
ovo said:
sorry @BGinGA , I understand now. Why would some Casablanca's be aligned, and some not ? I have to admit, I've always been suspicious, since my aligned chips look like they have been milled and a new label applied , but what do I know .
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No idea. Some Casas are aligned, some aren't. Some styles are nearly 100% aligned, others styles have both aligned and random placements, and some styles seem to have totally random inlay placements.

I'd guess that the various styles were produced at different times, and probably by different workers as well.

Slow day = aligned.......busy day = random?
OCD worker = aligned......lazy worker = random?

Who knows.... ;)

I've also never figured out why they used two different inlay sizes, nor why they ordered so many different chip color/spot combinations per denomination....... except for the $1 and $1000 chips. :confused:eek:_O
 
It's almost certainly at the whim of the worker who is placing the inlays.
 
upNdown said:
I didn't like CPC's at first. But after playing with other people's CPC sets I really got to like them a lot. I think they're great. They're not as good as Paulsons, or TRK's for that matter, but I'd rather play with CPC's and BCC's than anything else on the market. They're so much better than ceramics and Bud Jones and china clays. They're great chips. It's too bad they're so expensive, but it's tough to argue with the price when they're better than anything else on the consumer market.
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I agree with you. The other chips on the market are not "real chips" compared to compression-molded chips. I can feel you when you play a lot with compression chips and can never go back to abs/composite ones. In terms of plastic chips, I like NextGens and think they are also great chips for home games. I don't have a full size poker table in my apartment and we usually play on the long dinning table without any table felt. It feels relaxed when you play with cheap plastic chips and you know you don't need to worry about them. NextGens also feel good when you play with them. It's really a bargain chip.
 
Psypher1000 said:
Somewhat, although fractionals are in pretty much every color. Pink and yellow are fairly common, though, and some states actually require them to be a specific color.
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Thank you for your replies. @MD Mike provides a detailed description/explanation to my situation here (Thank you Mike!). I should be more careful with my word choices...People here are awesome and really helpful. It's a great community.
 
BGinGA said:
I'd guess that the various styles were produced at different times, and probably by different workers as well.
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They don't have a high-precision machine to align the chips and need to rely on human workers?? Also, I received some Aztar 500s today and the inlays are not even centered. At least my WTHC inlays are centered. I assume Paulson was also making some technological progress along the way.
 
@MD Mike I really appreciate your detailed description/explanation here. You really know what I'm saying. Thank you again!
 
ovo said:
The only paulsons I've seen aligned are Casablanca's
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I have some gray/yellow Casablanca's 100s coming in... Don't really know they also have a red version. Looking forward to see them.
 

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