Granadol
Pair
Can someone explain what is meant when a chip is "murdered"? Sounds pretty bad. 
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"Murdered" Chip Meaning (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Granadol
- Start date
Term means the original inlay or hotstamp is removed. We use the term murdered because it can’t be undone and thus ends the life/existence of the chip as it was originally made.
Inlays can be murdered either by removing just the inlay (think of it like a sticker) with an exacto knife, essentially peeling the inlay off or by milling the inlay which also removes some of the clay the inlay was adhered to. Hotstamps are murdered through milling.
Someone else can probably shed more light on it but that’s the gist.
Inlays can be murdered either by removing just the inlay (think of it like a sticker) with an exacto knife, essentially peeling the inlay off or by milling the inlay which also removes some of the clay the inlay was adhered to. Hotstamps are murdered through milling.
Someone else can probably shed more light on it but that’s the gist.
It’s a horrible thing to doCan someone explain what is meant when a chip is "murdered"? Sounds pretty bad.
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Got you. So it may be blank or relabeled? Is that correct? Thanks for the help.
RichMahogany
Straight Flush
No. A blank chip means it never had a hot stamp or inlay to begin with
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
So why would someone want a murdered chip?
RichMahogany
Straight Flush
Not sure if serious...
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
I am serious. It is not something someone wants then? Just trying to figure out whether it is a bad or good thing. Sounds like you don't want one.
John Conor
Flush
Usually someone wants to add a denomination to their set that doesn’t exist or is hard to find. Some go for full custom sets using this method. Mostly someone will “murder” a barrel or whole rack. They are going to apply a new label.
“Blank chip” is actually another term that’s reserved only for chips that were manufactured without an inlay or hotstamp. You however are correct that once murdered a chip face (where the inlay/hotstamp was) would now be blank. People murder chips as you noted, to relabel them.
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Got it, so if you are relabeling, those chips were "murdered" to get them that way.
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Thank you everyone for answering my dumb question.
It’s also important to note that some people find murdering any chip to be in poor taste while others find only murdering more historic or rare chips for be in bad taste.
Think about it like someone buying a house and then painting over the original aesthetics. If it was a new house with no particular importance to anyone, then no one would bat an eye. If however the house was super old, was once where a famous person once lived, the place where a historic event occurred, or the like, the same remodeling of that house may be found in poor taste.
Think about it like someone buying a house and then painting over the original aesthetics. If it was a new house with no particular importance to anyone, then no one would bat an eye. If however the house was super old, was once where a famous person once lived, the place where a historic event occurred, or the like, the same remodeling of that house may be found in poor taste.
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OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
@ReallyGoodUsername I can definitely understand that one. Thanks.
markleteenie
4 of a Kind
Or it's giving the chip a new lease on life.
JScott
Flush
It's worth mentioning that not all relabeled chips are murdered, they could be "overlabelled"
Sometimes...
Murdering chips with inlays would not be necessary at all if it wasn't for the fact that new inlays add height to the chip face. To go to an extreme, think about what would happen if you added 10 new inlays (again can be thought of as stickers essentially) to a chip. Those would now protrude above the actual clay moldings around it and create significant issues when stacking or shuffling. The same is true with many chips when you even try to add one new inlay so to overcome this people "murder" aka remove the only inlay to make space for the new one.
But... if the chip is fairly new than the clay on the face of the chip that surrounds the inlay will still be high enough (in comparison to the inlay) to take/receive a certain type of new inlay without removal of the old inlay, all while not creating the height issues noted above.
Inlays - there's different types of inlays (I won't go into) but basically some are taller than others and some are shorter. The shortest of which can sometimes be applied over an original inlay without causing issues.
Sure but I believe people refer to it as murder specifically because it is ending the life of the original chip. It doesn't mean the piece of clay is destroyed, just that the XYZ chip is technically not longer a XYZ chip but a "murdered" XYZ chip.
Eloe2000
Straight Flush
It isn't a dumb question and the opinions on it are mixed or complex.
Personally, I have murdered chips to make .25 frac chips which I use in my game but generally aren't available for native sets. But I have also made sets that I want to customize with my poker room/club name.
Generally, I am very comfortable murdering non-casino chips (so the sets that Paulson made for the home market including Starbursts and Fantasy sets like Viva Las Vegas or Avalon). There are also some casino chips that have no real history where I don't have issue murdering. In my current chip set I am working on I am murdering some cruise ship casino chips that are certainly not historic, often found from people who pocketed a couple on their cruises, and where you couldn't really make a set out of these chips if you wanted to any way.
Personally, I have murdered chips to make .25 frac chips which I use in my game but generally aren't available for native sets. But I have also made sets that I want to customize with my poker room/club name.
Generally, I am very comfortable murdering non-casino chips (so the sets that Paulson made for the home market including Starbursts and Fantasy sets like Viva Las Vegas or Avalon). There are also some casino chips that have no real history where I don't have issue murdering. In my current chip set I am working on I am murdering some cruise ship casino chips that are certainly not historic, often found from people who pocketed a couple on their cruises, and where you couldn't really make a set out of these chips if you wanted to any way.
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Thank you all. Always a great group of folks willing to help out. Great Forum!!
Just to clarify, I *think* the common understanding is that the replacement is actually a label (or equivalent of a sticker) and not an inlay.
And murdering chips is the best way to relabel a chip in my opinion. In some cases a laminated label (which normally requires the inlay to be removed) can be more durable than the original inlay.
Murdering chips allows you to:
- create your own custom set, picking and choosing the colours and spot patterns you want, while getting the advantage of Paulson quality chips (the only alternative is to sneak an order past Paulson, very difficult to do)
- add hard to find denominations to existing sets - I use murdered chips for my Jack $500s and HSI $0.25 where the original chips are $800+ per rack (in comparison my HSI replacements cost less than $90 a rack)
That said, I don't have the stomach to murder chips that are limited in quantity. Once murdered you can't go back!
I always get yelled at by Dave for misusing the terms inlay and label lol
Explain it to me like I'm 5 please
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Yea, I need some .25 HSI's I may look at a similar process
... Some people like @Josh Kifer, for instance.
@Josh Kifer is the king murderer..........so I've heard... 
Eloe2000
Straight Flush
The easiest solution is to go to Gear and have him make "overlabels" that go on top of existing inlays. But for the best results you would painstakingly murder the chips and replace the inlay with a Gear label.
Now with those you could actually likely find a chip in minty enough condition to use the type of inlay that would allow you to just place it over the existing label/inlay/whatever its called. Why would that be preferable if possible? 1) removing inlays by hand can be time consuming and not always easy as peeling a sticker is 2) milling is easier but requires you to mail the chips to someone who has the skills and tools to do so and generally costs $60 per 100 chips + shipping both ways unless you live near enough to someone to drop them off in person so you're looking at $75+ per 100 at that point.
It's disgusting!
OP
OP
Granadol
Pair
Who is Gear?
Murder? Me? Never! Well maybe just once or twice...
But the ends justify the means: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/media/albums/side-show-poker.1816/
But the ends justify the means: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/media/albums/side-show-poker.1816/
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