Thanks so much for the offer. I hate trying to rush into this thing, slow down the ordering process for everyone and more importantly cause any unneeded stress so I'll reluctantly sit this one out. Hopefully another group buy will come along that I can really get into. Appreciate all the help and knowledge from you guys.
So couple of things to think about and keep in mind. How long do you plan on being around, how many sets do you think you'll end up with, what's your price range, etc.
To give you some small insights to the site. Let's say there's low/mid/high tier chips. The low tier chips are these same 5-7 brands and designs of chips that cost conscientious chippers purchase. They aren't bad at all, but they resell for pennies on the dollar, they're ubiquitous and not unique, and they're available 24/7 from any number of online vendors and dealers. Everything explodes after that, from cheapish group buys to find and rehabbing old paulson chips to ceramics to buying other peoples customs to anything you can dream of.
If this helps you put it in perspective, a vendor had blank 8V
CC (china clay chips, cool edge spots). Sold them for .10 a piece, these things were going like crazy. I have a couple thousand, and it'll be a cool little "cheap set", but can you imagine the $ I'll have into that when I've paid for all the labels and taken the time to put them on?
I was in your spot, 2 days ago, didn't want to join a GB when I have no design, ideas, nothing. People pop up, say use this, I say okay. Sell one rack (100 chips!) and pay for a cash and tourney set. Here's the thing, if you can swing $100-$200, you do this. Score fully custom chips designed by the people who design best and have a great set for an extraordinarily cheap price. Take your time, go learn, see whats out there, build your knowledge and repertoire. If you decide you want to move on from what you have, depending on the art you choose, easy, EASY sell for 80-100% of what you paid.
Why am I pushing you to do this? Because the last group buy like this was from a joke thread that got out of control, and in the other year+ that I've been here that hasn't been another quite like this (there have been several with more expensive chips, but not like this and the last one). You can always choose to do this on your own and pay a bit more in fees and shipping and chips, but you won't. You're not gonna just jump on a site and figure out chip designs and hire a designer and contact an overseas manufacturer.
So if you have the $150, get a small tourney set. Spend the $175-200 on a tiny little cash set that will be eons ahead of anything else you have right now. If you reach out to the forum and ask where to start, they're gonna say that there are a ton of well priced Paulson's out there for you right now that you could get for only $600ish (and they'd be right). If that's something that sounds unfathomable right now, than this is the place for you.
This should have been a PM, I just wrote a Ben sized fricken novel
. Give it a second thought, if you have questions, post here or feel free to private message me. Noones trying to pressure you, it does us literally no good. Simply trying to provide additional intel and help make the right decision for you.
edit: I'm not gonna lie, I kinda liked when I had two designs that noone else was using. But it's also cool to see someone else score and like a similar design. If you happen to like Eloe2000's Donkey design, I'll commit to buying them from you at cost if you don't like them or go to sell them at some point. Just make sure you talk to someone first and don't get a shitty breakdown. I guess I'd offer that for the Clowns as well, but I'm still secretly hoping noone else jumps on board that train with me