Official Poker Chip Set Rating Service (1 Viewer)

Just paid top dollar for this multi table set cause I know it will double in value.

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When I was a kid we didn't have much money to spare so sugar cereals like Lucky Charms were completely out of the question - more expensive, and largely void of nutrition. As a result they've come to be a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't buy them very often at all, but when I do I'm like a pihranna devouring its prey - it's gone quickly, and it's best to stay out of my way. So I was grocery shopping in Fry's (our local Krogers brand) the other day and found myself stopping in front of the cereal isle, staring at the generic brand bag of Lucky Charms. "Hmmm...twice the volume at half the cost? Who cares if it's the off brand and doesn't have a box...that just makes it easier to dip your hands into...right?" I ultimately passed, because what kind of self-respecting man with no kids and no recent divorce needs a whole freakin' bag-o-charms for himself?

I say this because, just below the generic off brands - and I am absolutley not making this up - there were bins of even off-er brand bags of those same cereals, and those bins had signs on them saying 50% off & that they were discontinued. They were intentionally placed near the floor hoping kids would see them and grab them, but they were so bad not even todlers with poorly developed taste buds wanted them.

I imagine those bags were full of these chips. It's like someone removed the gall stones from a sick rhinocerous, put them on a lathe, sliced them up, and called them poker chips.

I award you zero points, and may Jim Blanchard have mercy on your soul.
You spelled “rhinoceros” wrong.
 
There's really quite a bit to like about this set. Let's start with the inlays. Quality illustration, color-matching on the denoms, effective application of a gradient effect, and, of course, the star of the show - that hometown crab. Not everyone can feature an STD as the mascot of their chip set, but you pull it off effectively here.

The breakdown is sufficient for .25/.50 up through $2/$5, and perhaps even $5/$10 with the $500's on top - and there's even enough $5's to run a $10/$20 limit game if wanted. I see a lot of cash sets/Cali sets go with $20's for good reason, but I do love a nice, purple Cali $25 and that's the direction you chose here, which contrasts nicely with the $5. The fives seem a little fruity for a Maryland set - lemons, limes, and oranges - oh my! - but if I lived in Maryland I'd want to escape to Florida, too (and when Florida starts to look like an upgrade to where you currently live, things must be dire). The palette of the $5 is at least consistent with itself, and contrasts not just with that $25, but that nice, bright American Pie $1. This is how you build a set!

For all it does well, though, the set is not without it's flaws.

First, we need to talk about the elepehant...err, virus in the room - that frac. It's been well-documented that tri-colored quarter-pies are a leading cause of cancer. But latley the CDC has been investigating them as a source of novel coronaviruses. In this frac we see a leading candidate for where the Wuhan virus actually originated from. My sample has been sent off for testing, but the lesson here is simple: if you want quality, virus-free fracs, don't go to China.

On the other end of the set, we have parallel, split-spotted hundos and $500's with spots that appear to have been hand-painted on like nail polish - but badly. Since going with a Bavarian spelling of Haus, I'm assuming Chippy found a nice German with Parkinson's to paint those spots. Bavaria's good for airplanes and cars, not nails or high denoms.

The set as a whole is great & just has a couple flaws that are easily correctible in the future. For fracs, stick with German engineering; for nails & high denoms, stick to Asia. I start it at a 9, add some points for the great breakdown, and remove some points for the misses on the ends.

9 crabcakes out of 10; would play anytime.
 
I actually enjoy used casino sets because they're broken in and lack the harshness of fresh chips. I also enjoy a good Cali set. One of the reasons I love Cali sets is they kinda just do what they want with colors so you get a lot of creativity there. In this case, what California wanted to do was MDMA with the large, dilated inlays...or, in the case of the $5, it wanted to do a tree frog. I'm not quite sure what that base color is, but it resembles the excrement of a sick infant.

You could theoretically title this set "not quite". The fiver isn't quite green and isn't quite yellow. The $20 chip isn't quite purple, so the denom isn't quite $25. There isn't quite enough room in the recess for the inlay, and in the case of the $100, it looks like there isn't quite enough room on the inlay for the last 0 - it starts to get squished. So I guess that means it's not quite good.

6/10 paddlewheels; nobody uses a steamboat in California anymore.

What an underwhelming, uninspired rating. It’s like whatever substance you were on last night has worn off, leaving you a shell of your former self, going through the motions of what once was an epic quest. Lay down your sword soldier, the battle has passed you by.

3/10 mockeries, May you be able to dig deep within and find the waning angst that once drove you.
 
I’ll throw in my custom set. If you love for any offbrand, beat by dad, lucky charms energy left, have at it.

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Full set is still in progress. <s>Enjoy</s> Butcher this small stakes carve out in the meantime.
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To me, these birdies are even more loveable than mine :)
But I 'm afraid His barbarous All Chipness might think otherwise:LOL: :laugh:
 
(This is another one that hurt. I'd still love a sample set of these one day...)

Hubba hubba!

So let's start with the drawbacks. The obvious one here is the RHC mold. Really would have preferred THC, but the larger recess does allow for an easier to read stamp, so there's that. And at least the chips were just slightly broken in. Also, if memory serves, the breakdown received from the casino was a little odd so only two or three playable sets could be carved from it, and even then the breakdowns weren't exactly standard. On the flipside, when you get a limited set like that with great colors and stamps, it's instantly desireable & collectible.

As for the visuals, there's a lot to like here. Really nice spots and colors. Not much of a progression, per se, but what's there is still nice - although I'm not super keen on the color choices for the 5k. Sure, it's got gold foil rather than silver and is on the RHC instead of THC but I'm not going to nitpick here.

Posting the Hawaii Flower next to the light grey could have been a disaster, but the spot colors and patterns chosen minimize/eliminate the risk of dirty stacks, particularly on that 100. That's a perfect example of a chip where the spots/colors aren't necessarily bright but still really stand out. And then there's that gorgeous, glorious 8v 1k chip...that's just fantas...

Omigawd...do you see those Aurora Star tourney chips over there!!! I'm gonna go talk to her....

I had a rating in mind for these, but I already forgot.

I give it ? out of 10 has-beens. I'm sorry, who are you again?
 
Not every set needs to be able to spread every game. Some sets are perfectly good for what they are.

This set is mostly good.

I do love a nice, casino used mixed set, and this is the part that's mostly good. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for those Eldorado Club $1's. Many are kinda bike-tired, but a lot of them still have life and when properly cleaned up and oiled, the colors are still great. They pair nicely with the Outpost $5's with those shaped inlays. You still have blue next to blue, but the shades are different enough that it doesn't look like a repeat, and the conditions of the chips go well with one another. I'm not as big of a fan of the $25 selection. I do like the LCO $25 on it's own, but now you have three blues present in three chips, and you have repeated inlay shapes next to one another. I feel like there has to be a better option somewhere, but all things considered, it still works.

What doesn't work is the lack of fracs. It's like you went shopping and forgot the baby in the car - it's kinda important, and leaving it behind might get you in trouble. With fracs we've got a nice little casino used set that could spread a .25/.50 or .50/$1 game. Without them, you're a little limited.

The other major problem is that barrel of hundos.

My friend used to live with his great aunt Edna in a house that hadn't been updated since about 1973. Mirrors and shag carpeting all over the place. Once upon a time his aunt was a sexy beast, but the first time I met her I walked into this smoke-filled living room and heard a raspy voice from the back that sounded like a VW Beetle... "C'mere doll." After parting the smoke I found my way to this red velvet couchwith aunt Edna laying acrosed it on her side. Black polyester slacks. Heavy, red knitted turtleneck. Thick, coke-bottle classes that were yellowed from decades of smoke; and teeth that matched. My 19-year old self couldn't help but be intrigued by her attitude, but wisdom being the better part of valor, I fled.

You should have fled from those hundos in the back. I can see why you were intrigued and I can't blame you for experimenting, but they're so yellowed from smoke you might get lung cancer just from putting them into play. Plus it's a casino repeat.

Starts at an 8. Significant deductions for the lack of fractionals and avocado shag carpet.

6 out of 10 Virginia Slims; bring an oxygen canister with you.
 
My nearly complete mixed set.... Please... View attachment 401169

Now what new manner of dumbfuckery do we have here? Christ, it's like you aimed for the floor and still managed to miss!

You start out with some fantastic blues and yellows - and then promptly fucked an ostrich...err, murdered them. I can potentially forgive you for the Karls 5's, but the Maverick $5s??? Dude, those would have been amazeballs in the right Cali-colored hot-stamped set. Not so much any more. It takes a big man to destroy history and you stepped up to the plate.

Speaking of Cali colors, you had something going there with the blues and yellows, and then decide to screw it all up by pairing it with those Claim Stake $5's. The redbirds on their own are nice, historical selection, but paired with the blues and yellows that seems to indicate you're going to use the yellows for $1's - alegedly - and, given your other chip selections here I can only assume you'll do something similarly brilliant with the fracs and make them 37c. Well done, super chief.

And then the $10's? TEN DOLLAR CHIPS??? Look, I love me a nice $10 chip, but a time and a place for everything - and the place for these is "nowhere in this set" - and especially since they're green in the spot where the $25's should be. What a joke...it's fuckin' embarassing!

I'm gonna put this in terms you can understand.

2 out of 10 spare parts; don't come up the laneway.
 
Here we have a set from a time when the queen's stylings were considered attractive, and the 312 pattern was the bastion of human creativity. On the one hand, it's got a great, old school feel to it with a mold and theme that pair well together; and a nice slightly modified Cali color combination.

On the other...

"What pattern should we use for the $1?" - 312
"What about the $5" - Umm...312.
"How about the $20" - That's starting to get up there in denomination. Hmm...let's see...OH...ME KNOW! ME KNOW!

By the time you get to the $500, the monotony is enough to make me want to gouage a sword into my ear.

Speaking of that $500 - it's easy to spot a fake when you pair it next to the real thing, and I think you know that. In all the pictures the barrell of $500's is kinda blurred by the glare, and the singles aren't super prominently featured in the splash pot. But we can see it, Mark...chippers know the real thing. If the queen needed to shade her eyes, would she put on a pair of Fakeley's? If she needs a handbag, is she going to reach for a Roach purse? C'mon...you've already come this far. Find someone with room in their MD-50 order for one more denomination, spend the money, and get a real barrel made.

The set as a whole (minus the barrel of fakehundreds), in the words of Indiana Jones, belongs in a museum. Leave the antiquties to the Louve and consider investing in a more modern set, like Paulson Classics, perhaps.

Still, the set has nice color choices, can spread just about any game, and has great old-school stylings. And any set that starts at dimes is a friend of mine - micro-stakes FTW!

Starts at a 10. Bit of a deduction for the barrel of fakehundreds.

9.5 of 10 swords; I'd polish her crown any day.
 

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