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"Murdered" Chip Meaning (3 Viewers)

ReallyGoodUsername said:
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.
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Where is the best place to find HSI 25 cent labels?
 
Eloe2000 said:
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.
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I actually prefer over labels where viable. It adds additional weight to non-leaded chips and if the chips in question are new, I've found the heightened inlay face actually makes shuffling easier. Obviously if the chips where it could become more of an issue but in 99% of our home games that would take decades.

Edit - inlay/label removal also changes the sound of the chip when shuffled. Over labels have less of an effect and seem to deepen the sound as opposed to heighten/thin it.
 
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Eloe2000 said:
I don't roll with RHCs so its a moot point for me but I found the labels so thin that they were really tricky to apply and appear to me be more obvious as "stickers" rather than a true inlay.
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Same, as regards to looking like “stickers.” I think overlabels look terrible
 
Granadol said:
Thank you everyone for answering my dumb question.
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There’s no such thing as a dumb question, just dumb...nevermind.
Just kidding.
We all start out at some point without knowing all the lingo and rationale behind things. Ask away.
 
grantc54 said:
I agree. The look and feel of an overlabel is not close to a full label replacement by a long shot.
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Does anyone have PrOn specifically of murdered HSI chips before relabeling? What process did you use? How difficult were they compared to say, THC inlay murder?
 
markleteenie said:
Or it's giving the chip a new lease on life.
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I prefer to look at it this way ^^^

Most of the time murder chips are destined to sit in a box or on a shelf gathering dust and never being used (not always but the majority). Giving them new life and getting them on the felt is a better life. :)
 
Granadol said:
Got you. So it may be blank or relabeled? Is that correct? Thanks for the help.
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RichMahogany said:
No. A blank chip means it never had a hot stamp or inlay to begin with
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Just to clarify. Milled (or murdered) chips could be left blank. I have a few chips like that, where the hotstamp was a "Roulette A" or letter, and they're milled blank, and I just left them that way. See the yellow chips here: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/media/albums/paulson-solids-tournament-set.1356/

Although many times the (now) blank chips are relabeled.
 
The term became fashionable in competitive web-based gaming culture, and people think it's cool I guess. Much like how the use of crotch puns never fails to make people giddy with delight for some weird reason.

I always assumed the term could be loosely used to reference any chip modification that cannot be undone, perhaps most commonly the removal of inlays.
 
I could not bring myself to murder some chips but I did have @Gear do the deed for me. What a great way to finish off my first casino set! Trops was the set that changed my searches to Nevada only chips.

I had him color match the inlay background and used a textured label. The artwork is from what I made up years ago to make the buttons.

Love the set.

IMG_2277 2.jpeg

IMG_2277 2.jpeg

  • Media owner David O
  • Date added
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Tropicana Fracs
 
There are several threads on "How to murder" but quickly here is the procedure:
1) Cut the inlay
2) Peel off the protective Laminate - I have a little pick that I use to turn back the corner of the laminate which makes it much easier to grab with a pliers.
3) Apply Non Acetone Nail Polish Remover (NANPR) and let sit for about 20 minutes
4) Remove printed inlay (hopefully it is vinyl) Vinyl = relatively easy, paper = much more difficult (I also use the pick to get under the edge of the vinyl inlay and get it started)
and a pictorial:





 
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Mangatang said:
Exacto knife method?

Never mind. Spoke too fast.
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Just like the picture shows. I started in the middle somewhere and pulled the blade toward myself and my thumb. I never even came close to cutting myself and like I said, I have over 1000 HSI's under my belt and a few others too. Once you have done a few it will become pretty obvious how deep you want to go. Go deep enough that you go through the protective laminate, but not any deeper. This isn't super critical, but you do want to get all the way through the laminate or otherwise you will have a hard time grabbing it and pulling it up
 
redrum.......
6721FA3F-4D23-48EC-B213-E570EC8D83CC.jpeg
 
Eloe2000 said:
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).
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Since this is a thread for new members, I feel compelled to point out that some people seek out and collect starburst chips, and in fact some starburst colors are very desired and very hard to find, and thus on behalf of the rest of us I always hope that people looking to build a collection of solids to mill and relabel would stick to monograms and obscure, uninteresting cardrooms rather than taking more starbursts off the market permanently.

But of course, anyone should always feel free to do whatever they like with their own chips.

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For the new members: "Solids" are chips without edge spots, most often found in sets made for the home market and in obscure, uninteresting cardrooms, and also as low denomination chips in some larger casinos, usually with hotstamps instead of inlays. "Starbursts" are chips with a unique star-shaped hotstamp on them. Paulson sometimes uses that hotstamp to cancel chips that need to be decommissioned for various reasons; Paulson also made lots of plain chips - usually solids - that have just that hotstamp on them, and then sold them to the home market.

Some of us think they look really cool. :)
 
CrazyEddie said:
Since this is a thread for new members, I feel compelled to point out that some people seek out and collect starburst chips, and in fact some starburst colors are very desired and very hard to find, and thus on behalf of the rest of us I always hope that people looking to build a collection of solids to mill and relabel would stick to monograms and obscure, uninteresting cardrooms rather than taking more starbursts off the market permanently.

But of course, anyone should always feel free to do whatever they like with their own chips.

---

For the new members: "Solids" are chips without edge spots, most often found in sets made for the home market and in obscure, uninteresting cardrooms, and also as low denomination chips in some larger casinos, usually with hotstamps instead of inlays. "Starbursts" are chips with a unique star-shaped hotstamp on them. Paulson sometimes uses that hotstamp to cancel chips that need to be decommissioned for various reasons; Paulson also made lots of plain chips - usually solids - that have just that hotstamp on them, and then sold them to the home market.

Some of us think they look really cool. :)
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Out of curiosity, what starburst colours are desirable? The typical high value colours like blaze orange, hot pink, etc? Or are there others that you wouldn't think of that people want/need?
 
Oh the carnage...



I've said this before, if a chip is not happy in its current state, feels like its doesn't belong in or has no proper home. There are two possible courses of action.

Action 1). Label over.
This requires giving the chip a new identity by applying a label to the surface of the older inlay.
This makes the chip happy, but not a permanent fix. As the new label can be removed and the old inlay / hot stamp be exposed. Reverting the chip back to its original state.

Action 2) Label Reassignment Surgery (LRS) (aka Murder)
This requires the physical removal of the old inlay or hotstamp and a new label applied.
This also makes the chip happy. While nothing is permanent and this too can be changed. The old inlay is gone and the chip can never go back to that original state.
 
grantc54 said:
Out of curiosity, what starburst colours are desirable? The typical high value colours like blaze orange, hot pink, etc? Or are there others that you wouldn't think of that people want/need?
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Right now I'm particularly thinking of black. @DZPoker spent a long time looking for a rack before finding one, and I've yet to see one come up for sale in the public view. But I guess that speaks to rarity, not desirability (maybe both!). Whites seem to be fairly common, as well as reds, although shade matching is always a problem when trying to make a rack out of thirty chips here and eighty-five chips there.

A few people are trying to make "skittles" sets (like this one!), where every player gets a stack of chips in their own color. So for something like that they're trying to get many different colors.

Can't speak for anyone else, but yeah, starburst collectors like pretty colors as much as anyone, so the same colors that are widely in demand will be in demand for starbursts as well. For myself, I'm looking for black (to go with my beautiful whites) plus anything else that my wife says "oooh!" when she sees the pictures. :)
 
MatB said:
Action 1). Label over.
This requires giving the chip a new identity by applying a label to the surface of the older inlay.
This makes the chip happy, but not a permanent fix. As the new label can be removed and the old inlay / hot stamp be exposed. Reverting the chip back to its original state.
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But there is no guarantee that you can revert the chip to its original state. If the adhesive bond of the overlabel is strong enough, trying to remove it can rip off the laminate layer underneath it, exposing the original inlay to future environmental damage.
 
allforcharity said:
But there is no guarantee that you can revert the chip to its original state. If the adhesive bond of the overlabel is strong enough, trying to remove it can rip off the laminate layer underneath it, exposing the original inlay to future environmental damage.
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Possibly, haven't seen any issues from he labels Gear puts out.

His are jusssst right !
 
Having read all the posts to this point, I have a potentially stupid question. If milling is murder, is inlay removal murder as well? Where's the line drawn? Removing an inlay seems more GBH than homicide to me.
 

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