Mini Rant on Splitting Sets (1 Viewer)

[manamongkids]

I think this is my 3rd year being a PCF/CT member, during that time, I have seen many many sets for sale. Often times when a set is listed, it says "No Splitting" and often times it says "No Splitting unless all racks are sold/accounted for."

I have always thought to myself, "what a ridiculous way to sell things."

I have a couple thoughts, just need to clear the air.

When a set is first listed for sale, of course it is ideal for it to be sold within minutes or hours, even a day or two where 1 singular person buys the entire set. Boom, case closed. One person bought a brand new set and are very happy.

There are other scenarios where someone has an existing set and wants to add on to make the set even more playable for themselves, because...well who the heck wouldnt want that?

This is where I get ranty, why is that people will not split their sets? Pure laziness is my guess, the thought of taking multiple boxes to the post office, addressing each one, having PM convos, and worrying about PayPal transactions.

If this is not the case, PLEASE share, open me to your world.

We should be willing as a community to split any and all sets to create a dynamic where more Chippers get more USABLE and PLAYABLE sets, instead of having to be gouged by prices on eBay/online ripoff stores to attempt to get to the dream/usable set.

If the buyers are willing to pay the shipping fees, and even pay for your time/shipping materials ($3-4 extra for that?, COUNT ME IN) why won't YOU do YOUR part and spent an extra 5-10 mins shipping some chipes!

/endrant

 

[trever]

Some denoms are in higher demand than others.
Once you split the set, the "best" chips sell quickly and you end up stuck with an unplayable, low-demand, unplayable accumulation of leftovers.

 

[links_slayer]

One reason for not wanting to split is to be left with an UNUSABLE and UNPLAYABLE breakdown for yourself after selling a portion of the set.

 

[detroitdad]

Most of my sets that I have sold in the past are one table sets. If I sell only a portion of it, then it isn't playable for my situation any longer. I'd rather sell everything (either to one person, or multiple people) at once and keep the set playable for me at the same time.

If I sell the 1.00 chips. Now my set isn't playable and I'm stuck with a partial cash set.

Oh, and its my prerogative to sell them how I wish. Its the buyers prerogative to purchase all of them or not (not trying to be dick).

 

[MoscowRadio]

My best guess is that a seller wants to avoid certain chips selling but being left with others, creating a completely unusable set. For instance, there is a 'for sale' ad in the classifieds right now with PCA $5's that a lot of people would like to get their hands on. However, if only the $5's sell, then the seller is left with the $1's and $25's which could very well sit and collect dust for quite some time.

 

[MeridianFC]

I think this one has now been answered.

 

[jbutler]

Laziness alone is plenty enough reason for me and is the reason I have refused to split in the past. If I have a set that I know will sell for what I want without my having to deal with the hassle of breaking it up, I will sell it without splitting.

Additionally (though let me be clear, laziness is still the most important factor), as noted above, it becomes a giant PITA to deal with several buyers if you have a particularly large set and if a couple of key buyers pull out at the last minute or even after you've sold and shipped part of the set, you can easily be up a creek.

 

[acl1904]

More boxes to ship = higher probability of getting a package lost or damaged (aside from carrier errors/damage, there can be seller error such as using an incorrect address when creating multiple labels, etc.). Or simply sending buyers the wrong chips - I've seen this happen before...

 

[Psypher1000]

The reasons for me go like this:

1. I hate shipping.
2. Perceiving the value of the set is greater than the sum of its parts
2a. Not wanting to be left with unplayable/undesirable remnants
4. Not wanting to keep track of multiple orders

For what it's worth, 1 and 2 are oceans apart, as are 2a and 4.

 

[bentax1978]

The reasons for me go like this:

1. I hate shipping.
2. Perceiving the value of the set is greater than the sum of its parts
2a. Not wanting to be left with unplayable/undesirable remnants
4. Not wanting to keep track of multiple orders

For what it's worth, 1 and 2 are oceans apart, as are 2a and 4.

For me it would mostly 2a, followed by 2. For some strange reason, I enjoy shipping stuff and don't mind keeping track of multiple orders. (y) :thumbsup:

 

[Socraticd]

I always just assume it's because of the "i don't want to have the X sell instantly, and be left with a pile of Y that i can't do anything with and isn't really in demand"

 

[Ben]

Pretty simple - you're willing to sell your set for $X. If nobody wants to pay $X, fine, F 'em, you'll keep and continue to enjoy the set. But if you sell ANY part of the set, you no longer have a playable/enjoyable set. Laziness aside, if you try to break up the set and ANY part of the set doesn't sell for the amount you're expecting, then you do not have $X, and you do not have your set. Then you frown a lot.

 

[pltrgyst]

....If this is not the case, PLEASE share, open me to your world.

We should be willing as a community to split any and all sets to create a dynamic where more Chippers get more USABLE and PLAYABLE sets, instead of having to be gouged by prices on eBay/online ripoff stores to attempt to get to the dream/usable set.

If the buyers are willing to pay the shipping fees, and even pay for your time/shipping materials ($3-4 extra for that?, COUNT ME IN) why won't YOU do YOUR part and spent an extra 5-10 mins shipping some chipes!

Easy solution: buy the whole set yourself, keep the racks you want, and sell the rest. Of course, that puts the onus on you for determining relative prices for each denom, but that seems fair, since you're the one wanting to do the splitting...

-- Larry

 

[manamongkids]

Easy solution: buy the whole set yourself, keep the racks you want, and sell the rest. Of course, that puts the onus on you for determining relative prices for each denom, but that seems fair, since you're the one wanting to do the splitting...

-- Larry

BTW this wasnt about a specific set I saw for me, this was jsut in general.

But if a case presented itself where I wanted part of the set, this is what I would do, if no splits were allowed.

 

[catalyzeme]

Easy solution: buy the whole set yourself, keep the racks you want, and sell the rest. Of course, that puts the onus on you for determining relative prices for each denom, but that seems fair, since you're the one wanting to do the splitting...

-- Larry

I've done this twice and both times I ended up keeping all the chips...

 

[Psypher1000]

BTW this wasnt about a specific set I saw for me, this was jsut in general.

But if a case presented itself where I wanted part of the set, this is what I would do, if no splits were allowed.

I've done this with at least three purchases, but the funds aren't always available for the initial outlay for some folks, and there's never any guarantee you can sell the unwanted chips.

 

[jbutler]

I've done this twice and both times I ended up keeping all the chips...

Lol this was my first thought as well when I read Larry's post.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

[bentax1978]

Easy solution: buy the whole set yourself, keep the racks you want, and sell the rest. Of course, that puts the onus on you for determining relative prices for each denom, but that seems fair, since you're the one wanting to do the splitting...

Last set of chips I bought was a no split set of 564 chips. I only wanted 20 of them, sold off the other 544.

But as it was mentioned above, you have to have a pretty good idea of what you can sell the other chips off for (and how easily) before you do that. In my case, a few people had expressed interested in other parts of the set, so I had a decent feeling I could make it work. In the end, I think everyone was happy as all the chips sold within a day at fair prices, and I got my barrel of PCA $100 secondaries

 

[ssanel54]

I find it easier to price a whole set, than to have to price each denomination individually by Rack or Stack.... I guess maybe that falls into laziness category.

Also - before the slew of Chip Room sets hit the market, it was more common for fully playable sets to be very limited in certain denominations.

 

[atomiktoaster]

I've done this twice and both times I ended up keeping all the chips...

Post a link to this comment if you ever see me thinking about buying a set and selling off more than 50% of the chips...

 

[pltrgyst]

Last set of chips I bought was a no split set of 564 chips. I only wanted 20 of them, sold off the other 544.

Now that's an extreme example! Put it in the "You Know You're a Chip-a-holic when..." thread!

 

[BGinGA]

My solution to the issue has been to simply never sell any sets. Only racks.


Well, up until pretty recently, anyways. I have sold a few sets, and was never even approached about splitting any of 'em. But if somebody ELSE wants to run a group buy for a set I'm selling and deal with the hassle of multiple demands and multiple payments and multiple shipping packages, more power to 'em. Just tell me when all of the money's been sent, and where I need to ship all of the chips.

 

[slisk250]

I can add one reason I won't split any set I potentially list - (there are a few). I agree with just about every argument the replies have offered. In addition, I feel a personal obligation to the community to keep a set intact. I don't collect singles, I'm building sets and relabel sets. I don't try to make any money by chipping. I'd rather trade to get what I need. I'm not a flipper in any way. Sure I can make more by splitting a set into racks, but laziness is not the reason for this as I'd still only make one trip to the post office and the packing isn't such a big deal. I just want to keep a set together. Once it is sold, I have no control but perhaps the chip gods are watching.

I wonder if a few flippers in the past had a rack or two Mapes 1s or something like that but instead of selling them together, they did the eBay single shuffle. I think the chip gods would rather see 2 racks of those 1s in a usable set than on 200 different walls. That's how I feel about splitting. Chip karma....

 

[BiGGyT]

BTW this wasnt about a specific set I saw for me, this was jsut in general.

But if a case presented itself where I wanted part of the set, this is what I would do, if no splits were allowed.

If you want part of the set, you will kick yourself later for selling off the rest. Just be a degenerate chipper and keep them all.

I wonder if a few flippers in the past had a rack or two Mapes 1s or something like that but instead of selling them together, they did the eBay single shuffle. I think the chip gods would rather see 2 racks of those 1s in a usable set than on 200 different walls. That's how I feel about splitting. Chip karma....

The one and only time I flipped, I bought all the chips of the casino the reseller had left, made playable sets of 500 with 25/50 minimum of a chip value (since they filled the 500 count chip case nice) and then sold off the individual oddballs at the end of the playable set sales. Most were on eBay, was before I knew of chipper boards.

No one ever recovers the cost in time and energy shipping chips, so splitting a big set is a major PIA, so don't complain if you have never done it.

BiGGyT

 

[manamongkids]

If you want part of the set, you will kick yourself later for selling off the rest. Just be a degenerate chipper and keep them all.




The one and only time I flipped, I bought all the chips of the casino the reseller had left, made playable sets of 500 with 25/50 minimum of a chip value (since they filled the 500 count chip case nice) and then sold off the individual oddballs at the end of the playable set sales. Most were on eBay, was before I knew of chipper boards.

No one ever recovers the cost in time and energy shipping chips, so splitting a big set is a major PIA, so don't complain if you have never done it.

BiGGyT

If youve run a GB or done a sample set thread ( i did for my CPC set) I didnt think it was too much of a hassle to ship things, took me like 2 hours to do 45 sample sets

 

[slisk250]

If you want part of the set, you will kick yourself later for selling off the rest. Just be a degenerate chipper and keep them all.




The one and only time I flipped, I bought all the chips of the casino the reseller had left, made playable sets of 500 with 25/50 minimum of a chip value (since they filled the 500 count chip case nice) and then sold off the individual oddballs at the end of the playable set sales. Most were on eBay, was before I knew of chipper boards.

No one ever recovers the cost in time and energy shipping chips, so splitting a big set is a major PIA, so don't complain if you have never done it.

BiGGyT

BiGGyT - I don't think that is considered a flip. You bought a bunch of chips, made a playable set and sold the rest off. That is good chip karma. Having a few barrels of unused chips just collecting dust does not appease the gods. Those chips are probably being played now. If a purchase is made with the only intention a later sell at profit...that is a flip.

If someone is going to flip and part of their chipping livelihood depends on making deals and profits all along the way to stay in this, that is their business and I get it.

 

[BiGGyT]

BiGGyT - I don't think that is considered a flip. You bought a bunch of chips, made a playable set and sold the rest off. That is good chip karma. Having a few barrels of unused chips just collecting dust does not appease the gods. Those chips are probably being played now. If a purchase is made with the only intention a later sell at profit...that is a flip.

If someone is going to flip and part of their chipping livelihood depends on making deals and profits all along the way to stay in this, that is their business and I get it.

I think buying 6000+ Olivia's chips from Spinnetti's for 60 cents a chip and selling them as 500 sets on eBay for $1+ each and then selling 6 and 8 and 16 of different denominations from leftovers would probably meet the definition of a flip.

If youve run a GB or done a sample set thread ( i did for my CPC set) I didnt think it was too much of a hassle to ship things, took me like 2 hours to do 45 sample sets

My time is billable, so those 2 hours would be unbillable time, cost me $500 in lost time revenue. If you build this into the cost, say an extra $11 for handling per set, then fine, you did well. Unfortunately, for me it doesn't work out so good, and it is still a PIA.

Edit : of course, if you love doing it, time doesn't matter. I don't love shipping.

 

[MD Mike]

People sell their sets? But but but why???

It's chips! Chips chips chips chips nom nom nom nom.....

*droools*

 

[Weckedy]

Talk about splitting sets ... Got the 5 and 25 ... but missed the 1 ...

*edit to remove eBay link

 

[slisk250]

I think buying 6000+ Olivia's chips from Spinnetti's for 60 cents a chip and selling them as 500 sets on eBay for $1+ each and then selling 6 and 8 and 16 of different denominations from leftovers would probably meet the definition of a flip.

I have no problems with this. You made a big purchase to get what you need and sold the rest off. I'll be doing the same next summer with 2-600 chip Terrible's sets. Those extra chips will never get play at my house. They will be priced for what I paid or less and includes hundos. No splits!!! Hopefully we'll add another chipper to the list owning Paulson casino sets.