What to Consider When Purchasing Chip Carriers
There is no perfect case. Everyone’s needs are somewhat unique, and personal taste counts for a lot. If you know your needs and wants though, making a great choice is much easier. I’ll start with a summary of my experiences. Then I will go through the process I went through finding solutions that work great for me.
I’ve tried a 1000 chip rolling aluminum case. It came free with 1000 chips. I wouldn’t trust its cheaply construction. If any case breaks, how catastrophic it is depends on how, when, and where it breaks. A friend had an aluminum case break. The handle broke while he was taking it to his car in the rain. It hit the driveway and popped open. Chips went everywhere. At least they were cheap plastic chips. After that, I didn’t trust the aluminum cases. If all you have to do is store the chips in your poker room, it might be OK, but I’d never pay for one or plan to transport chips despite the wheels.
If the case breaks because a single latch came undone, and it doesn’t cause the case to open, you will be OK but will need to retire that case and be more careful with it until you get your chips home. If your case breaks when you are home and not going to or from the car, that’s better than out in the open, especially at night when most poker games occur. If it breaks while you are at your game, that could be a problem. The better built your chip carrier, the less risk there is for your chips.
Once I had a custom-built wood case. It held 1000 chips in two 500-chip trays and several decks of cards. The lid hinges weren’t as well built as everything else. I still use the bottom part of the box, but for storage, not travel. I’m sure the wood cases out there are better than what I got. The guy who built it knew what it was for, but I think he seriously underestimated the stress on the hinges. Most of its life as a carrying case it had a belt around it to keep it closed.
I’ve used 4x25 plastic chip boxes in a gym bag. The boxes hold quite well, and will survive some falls without chips going everywhere. If they are inside a gym bag that is closed, at least if you drop the bag, the chips will stay in the bag. I use that when I only need to carry 300-500 chips. The bag can hold cards and dealer buttons too, and is easy to carry. I don’t know that I’d try it with more than 600 chips unless I used a much sturdier bag, which you could get. This good inexpensive solution is very workable. It’s easy to transport.
I used to play at other venues more often where I had to carry chips much further, and I’m prepared for having to park blocks away.
I also have 2 different sizes of shooting range bags that will hold the same things. The variable in the sizes is how many chips I need to carry. The smaller one will hold 800-1,000 chips. The larger 2 will hold up to 1,600 chips. The range bag with 1,600 chips weighs a little less than the Pelican with 1,000 chips, but the range bag doesn’t roll. With the rolling Pelican and a range bag, the range bag could easily sit on top of the Pelican while being rolled and I could, without too much difficulty, carry up to 2,600 chips quite a ways and have one hand free.
I use 4x25 boxes with lids for my chips, so they could survive mishaps without damaging the chips or messing up the organization of them.
There is no perfect case. Everyone’s needs are somewhat unique, and personal taste counts for a lot. If you know your needs and wants though, making a great choice is much easier. I’ll start with a summary of my experiences. Then I will go through the process I went through finding solutions that work great for me.
I’ve tried a 1000 chip rolling aluminum case. It came free with 1000 chips. I wouldn’t trust its cheaply construction. If any case breaks, how catastrophic it is depends on how, when, and where it breaks. A friend had an aluminum case break. The handle broke while he was taking it to his car in the rain. It hit the driveway and popped open. Chips went everywhere. At least they were cheap plastic chips. After that, I didn’t trust the aluminum cases. If all you have to do is store the chips in your poker room, it might be OK, but I’d never pay for one or plan to transport chips despite the wheels.
If the case breaks because a single latch came undone, and it doesn’t cause the case to open, you will be OK but will need to retire that case and be more careful with it until you get your chips home. If your case breaks when you are home and not going to or from the car, that’s better than out in the open, especially at night when most poker games occur. If it breaks while you are at your game, that could be a problem. The better built your chip carrier, the less risk there is for your chips.
Once I had a custom-built wood case. It held 1000 chips in two 500-chip trays and several decks of cards. The lid hinges weren’t as well built as everything else. I still use the bottom part of the box, but for storage, not travel. I’m sure the wood cases out there are better than what I got. The guy who built it knew what it was for, but I think he seriously underestimated the stress on the hinges. Most of its life as a carrying case it had a belt around it to keep it closed.
I’ve used 4x25 plastic chip boxes in a gym bag. The boxes hold quite well, and will survive some falls without chips going everywhere. If they are inside a gym bag that is closed, at least if you drop the bag, the chips will stay in the bag. I use that when I only need to carry 300-500 chips. The bag can hold cards and dealer buttons too, and is easy to carry. I don’t know that I’d try it with more than 600 chips unless I used a much sturdier bag, which you could get. This good inexpensive solution is very workable. It’s easy to transport.
- Do you need a case for storage, display, or both? This is partially a taste thing. I don’t need or want to display my chips. I don’t have a dedicated poker or game room, but even if I did, I’m just not in to displaying my stuff. My chips are either stored in a closet or in bags on my bookshelves in my home office, both chip storage locations within 15 feet of my main table.
- How many chips? The smaller the number of chips, the more options you will have. There are plenty of good options for 1,000 chips.
- How much do your chips weigh? There is a big difference between chip weights even if chips are the same size. The more chips you are carrying, the bigger a consideration the weight of them will be. Remember that 800 15-gram chips weighs as much as 1,500 8-gram chips. Consider both the weight of individual chips and number of chips.
- Do you need to travel with your case? If traveling…
- If you are transporting your chips, you will have an uninvited guest going with you. Whether it’s Mr. Murphy (from Murphy’s law fame) or Mayhem from All State, eventually something is going to go wrong. And while you might be in good hands with All State, your chips will not be. So don’t ignore this issue.
- If you are carrying 800 or more chips, at least consider getting a rolling case, or maybe a dolly where you could carry non-rolling cases. Even if you are strong enough to carry a heavy case with a lot of heavy chips, you aren’t Superman. And injury could make carrying them by hand impossible for you, but a rolling case might still work.
- Will chips be on a stable surface like the flat space in a trunk, the floorboard, or a truck bed or trailer? If you think 52 pick-up is not a fun game, you really don’t want to try hundreds of chips pick-up. If they spill out on the ground, especially on a rainy night, your case is poorly suited for your needs. Some chips spilled out on the ground in the rain on a concrete surface might actually roll further than you would imagine. Cleaning up muddy chips later isn’t fun.
- If your case tips over, what is going to happen to your chips?
- If not braced, what will keep the case from moving around? If the case could move around, your real need is going to be something that will keep the chips safe and in place when the case bumps into things. If you have cases that must be stacked on top of something else, keeping the chips inside safe and in place should be a huge consideration.
- Once at the playing location, how far do you have to transport them? The further away, the more you will appreciate a rolling case.
- What kind of surface will you be transporting them over? Rolling cases are best if you are on a surface that lends itself to that. Grass, dirt (mud), sand, and gravel don’t lend themselves to cases that roll.
I used to play at other venues more often where I had to carry chips much further, and I’m prepared for having to park blocks away.
- What do you need to carry?
- Chips
- Boxes with lids -- I prefer boxes with lids. If I tripped over the rug or dog carrying chips to the other table, picking up 6 boxes is a lot easier than picking up hundreds of chips. And if it happened, the chips are still organized the way I need. The boxes are not acrylic and will not break as easy.
- Racks – Racks seems to be the preference of most on this site in my experience.
- Racks with lids – I’m not sure how well racks with lids would survive a fall and still keep the chips in place.
- Cards, and if so, how many decks?
- Dealer buttons
- Card protectors (cappers)
- Timers (and possibly extra batteries
- Flashlight – If you are transporting your setup back home at night, a small flashlight can come in handy.
- If you need to carry something like neoprene toppers too, those either come in their own carrying case or you could get a carrying case for them.
- Chips
I also have 2 different sizes of shooting range bags that will hold the same things. The variable in the sizes is how many chips I need to carry. The smaller one will hold 800-1,000 chips. The larger 2 will hold up to 1,600 chips. The range bag with 1,600 chips weighs a little less than the Pelican with 1,000 chips, but the range bag doesn’t roll. With the rolling Pelican and a range bag, the range bag could easily sit on top of the Pelican while being rolled and I could, without too much difficulty, carry up to 2,600 chips quite a ways and have one hand free.
I use 4x25 boxes with lids for my chips, so they could survive mishaps without damaging the chips or messing up the organization of them.
- How much protection do the chips really need? If you have cheap, slugged chips, they could take a lot of abuse without and real damage and you might not really care about trying to protect them. On the other hand, if you spent a large chunk of change on your chips, protecting the individual chips will be a bigger consideration.
