Priced-out of this hobby? (1 Viewer)

[Ben8257]

Yes, it appears chippers treat public purchases and sales as a two person zero sum game. Max value cash grabs, imho, brought us here faster than any “whale”.

Again, for everyone here that yells non stop about us being a community, please show me the people who are randomly hooking folks up, sending out cheap sets, etc. to people outside their immediate circle.

I was given about $2,000 worth of (awesome) poker chips absolutely free from someone not in my circle.

Also YOU sent me Bill's chips in a giveaway absolutely free! Then I returned them to their owner for that same "free" price when asked!

Not a Saint by anymeans, I have sold chips for a profit, but try to help folks out ehrn we can!

 

[JMC9389]

Hey, I went the same way. I built this mixed, leaded THC set during the first summer of Covid:
View attachment 948129
All it needed was another rack or three of PCA $5s, and I’d have a set to keep forever. And I knew I’d find them, with patience; no rush.
But then one morning, Windwalker offered $1200 each for a dozen racks of PCA $5s, and I guess I realized 4 things:
1) I was happy to sell mine at that price.
2) I’d never find more of them at an acceptable price
3) I’d probably never find ANY mint leaded THC $5s at a reasonable price to finish the set.
4) Mint leaded THCs were now too expensive for me to justify owning.

I didn’t love those realizations, but that’s life. I sold.

This is the way I'm headed as well. My end game is that I keep my CPC's for my games. When all is said and done, I'll have 5 cash and 3 tournament sets from them to rotate through. Plenty.

The Paulson's and BCC's are likely one day all going to be sold to the highest bidder once my now small children are older and college tuition bills come due.

 

[shorticus]

Moved the convo here:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/when-is-a-chip-set-too-valuable.92181/

I don’t want to thread jack the current conversation.

 

[BarrieJ3]

I was given about $2,000 worth of (awesome) poker chips absolutely free from someone not in my circle.

Also YOU sent me Bill's chips in a giveaway absolutely free! Then I returned them to their owner for that same "free" price when asked!

Not a Saint by anymeans, I have sold chips for a profit, but try to help folks out ehrn we can!

As I've said time and time again, perception is everything here. I would venture a guess that that played some part in your $2k pickup.

For me, I like giveaways and FROR. Helps keep the market down and chips flowing.

Put a different way: I had plenty of more reasonable ways to spend $8000 than on a poker set

Ummmmm.......you spent $8k on a poker set?

 

[Ben8257]

Hey, I went the same way. I built this mixed, leaded THC set during the first summer of Covid:
View attachment 948129
All it needed was another rack or three of PCA $5s, and I’d have a set to keep forever. And I knew I’d find them, with patience; no rush.
But then one morning, Windwalker offered $1200 each for a dozen racks of PCA $5s, and I guess I realized 4 things:
1) I was happy to sell mine at that price.
2) I’d never find more of them at an acceptable price
3) I’d probably never find ANY mint leaded THC $5s at a reasonable price to finish the set.
4) Mint leaded THCs were now too expensive for me to justify owning.

I didn’t love those realizations, but that’s life. I sold.

Mmm... Happy Knights! I hope those didn't go as well!

I love them.in my red denom mixed set!! Beautiful chips

 

[RichMahogany]

Hey, I went the same way. I built this mixed, leaded THC set during the first summer of Covid:
View attachment 948129
All it needed was another rack or three of PCA $5s, and I’d have a set to keep forever. And I knew I’d find them, with patience; no rush.
But then one morning, Windwalker offered $1200 each for a dozen racks of PCA $5s, and I guess I realized 4 things:
1) I was happy to sell mine at that price.
2) I’d never find more of them at an acceptable price
3) I’d probably never find ANY mint leaded THC $5s at a reasonable price to finish the set.
4) Mint leaded THCs were now too expensive for me to justify owning.

I didn’t love those realizations, but that’s life. I sold.

This set is crying out for a red frac!

Nicely done btw

 

[Hot Nuts]

Hey, I went the same way. I built this mixed, leaded THC set during the first summer of Covid:
View attachment 948129
All it needed was another rack or three of PCA $5s, and I’d have a set to keep forever. And I knew I’d find them, with patience; no rush.
But then one morning, Windwalker offered $1200 each for a dozen racks of PCA $5s, and I guess I realized 4 things:
1) I was happy to sell mine at that price.
2) I’d never find more of them at an acceptable price
3) I’d probably never find ANY mint leaded THC $5s at a reasonable price to finish the set.
4) Mint leaded THCs were now too expensive for me to justify owning.

I didn’t love those realizations, but that’s life. I sold.

I remember when TCR was selling PCA Sec $5s for $.99 a chip. Stupid not to buy as many as I could have.

 

[shorticus]

For me, I like giveaways and FROR. Helps keep the market down and chips flowing.

You did this for me with the Bud Jones set and you have no idea how appreciative I am! I actually added quarters to this set and if I decided to move them, I’d still just give them back to you.

I had always wanted a Bud Jones set and you were kind enough to just ship them to me. That was probably the most awesome gesture I think I’ve experienced on this site, and I’ve dealt with some pretty awesome people here.

 

[Ben8257]

As I've said time and time again, perception is everything here. I would venture a guess that that played some part in your $2k pickup.

For me, I like giveaways and FROR. Helps keep the market down and chips flowing.


Ummmmm.......you spent $8k on a poker set?

That was Brie's pick up that she sold for PCAs... and no it was about 05 CDIs. An amazing chipper had done well on selling his house, bought new CPCs and didn't need them anymore, said he loved the giant hoard of 05 CDIs and as he had sold me some of them, he wanted to see them kept together. Pretty much the most insane thing I ever heard. The chips were a bit warped so he asked me to flatten a few racks and sell at market value with no time frame in mind... which I did and the rest of the chips were free. True story and part of why the CDI set is as big as it is today.

 

[ekricket]

Yes, it appears chippers treat public purchases and sales as a two person zero sum game. Max value cash grabs, imho, brought us here faster than any “whale”.

Again, for everyone here that yells non stop about us being a community, please show me the people who are randomly hooking folks up, sending out cheap sets, etc. to people outside their immediate circle.

@joeyshin
@RivieraDanny
@BarrieJ3

 

[BarrieJ3]

You did this for me with the Bud Jones set and you have no idea how appreciative I am! I actually added quarters to this set and if I decided to move them, I’d still just give them back to you.

I had always wanted a Bud Jones set and you were kind enough to just ship them to me. That was probably the most awesome gesture I think I’ve experienced on this site, and I’ve dealt with some pretty awesome people here.

Fo sho. The secret hope is that in like 10 years, there will be enough "free" sets out there, that if we get bored, we can just be like "Hey, haven't used Bud Jones. You want to trade this BCC or this RHC trade for a couple months?"

I'm actually surprised we don't see this more, and imagine it must be happening a bit privately? I don't have any sets to sell anymore, what I'm left with is keepers. What if I get bored with a set or don't get one in play ever? I'd love to move it along, but there's no way I'm selling these sets as my price won't keep. So finding good folks to give them to for free seems to be the best move forward for them as well as me!

 

[Eriks]

Ummmmm.......you spent $8k on a poker set?

No, but releasing it gave me the opportunity to spend $8000 on better things

 

[Rieguy]

Put a different way: I had plenty of more reasonable ways to spend $8000 than on a poker set

Yeah, like two or more different poker sets!

Anyone else doing their best, but are still getting priced out of the hobby?
I’m putting my best effort in but I think I’m going to be outbid on just about everything soon…

Sorry to hear Mike. You are one of the most selfless chippers I have met; hoping all the karma finds its way to you sooner than later. Things do seem to be calming down a little lately, so hopefully that trend will continue.

 

[Mortalpawn]

I was fortunate enough to grab a nice set of Paulson Pharaohs back when they were "cheap" and also have a fairly large ASM custom set I ordered many years back. I love them both, and did order a CPC add-on for my custom set a few months back.

Even if I could afford buying a classic Paulson set at $6+ a chip, for me the value is not there at this point in my life. I simply have other priorities. For a collector, I can see the value in used casino (or relabeled) Paulson's at $1-2 a chip and CPCs are an awesome option if you want to create a heirloom custom set.

The cards mold group buys remind me most of the earlier days of chipping at this point. There is a lot of creativity going into those sets, and some amazing people stepping up to create tributes to many classic chip designs and manage the group buys. They have an attractive price point, offer at least moderate security (it takes some time/effort to get a set), and great customization. They are certainly not Paulson's or CPC customs but they give the average person a chance to own an attractive, somewhat unique set at roughly the same price as China Clays.

While most people can no longer afford some of the coveted Paulson fantasy sets, I think the hobby is far from dead. People will still likely work there way up depending on their budget and level of interest: Dice Chips -> Pre made China Clays/Ceramics-> Cards Mold or Semi-Custom -> CPC Customs or used Paulson Casino -> Paulson/TRK, etc fantasy collectables.

I would love to someday see a Paulson group buy again (may never happen), but there are still many good options.

 

[ekricket]

Fo sho. The secret hope is that in like 10 years, there will be enough "free" sets out there, that if we get bored, we can just be like "Hey, haven't used Bud Jones. You want to trade this BCC or this RHC trade for a couple months?"

I'm actually surprised we don't see this more, and imagine it must be happening a bit privately? I don't have any sets to sell anymore, what I'm left with is keepers. What if I get bored with a set or don't get one in play ever? I'd love to move it along, but there's no way I'm selling these sets as my price won't keep. So finding good folks to give them to for free seems to be the best move forward for them as well as me!

@detroitdad @liftapint

 

[JeepologyOffroad]

Fo sho. The secret hope is that in like 10 years, there will be enough "free" sets out there, that if we get bored, we can just be like "Hey, haven't used Bud Jones. You want to trade this BCC or this RHC trade for a couple months?"

I'm actually surprised we don't see this more, and imagine it must be happening a bit privately? I don't have any sets to sell anymore, what I'm left with is keepers. What if I get bored with a set or don't get one in play ever? I'd love to move it along, but there's no way I'm selling these sets as my price won't keep. So finding good folks to give them to for free seems to be the best move forward for them as well as me!

I've discussed wife swap scenarios with a few people. We borrow each other's sets and play them for a bit before swapping back.

 

[liftapint]

@detroitdad @liftapint

I like the idea, but Bill didn't get the TRKs for free. He had to put down a refundable deposit.
And I'm not that charitable. If I had ANY idea he'd keep them this long, I NEVER would have sent them to him. He hadn't shown "keeper" behavior in the past, how was I to know???

 

[Eriks]

I've discussed wife swap scenarios with a few people. We borrow each other's sets and play them for a bit before swapping back.

That’s not a bad idea, I could see myself doing that with a close clique of people

 

[BarrieJ3]

No, but releasing it gave me the opportunity to spend $8000 on better things

Right, I understand that. Not taking a shot at you, just feel like jumping in on the priced out of this hobby topic and saying

CPC and BCC is where it’s at! Maybe if I sold all these I could get a leaded THC set. So. Not. Worth. It.

Put a different way: I had plenty of more reasonable ways to spend $8000 than on a poker set

is a bit disingenuous. Maybe misleading is a more neutral connotative word.

 

[ChipFinderSK]

The only way to obtain grail sets nowadays is to:

1) Have a lot of disposable income (maybe 10 - 25% of PCF)

2) Get in on the ground floor of a NAGB

3) Flip your way up to them

Hopefully I can soon be in category 1, because 2 & 3 aren’t really options for me. I do think a recession is coming (in the US) so it will be interesting to see what chip prices are at that point.

 

[JMC9389]

Fo sho. The secret hope is that in like 10 years, there will be enough "free" sets out there, that if we get bored, we can just be like "Hey, haven't used Bud Jones. You want to trade this BCC or this RHC trade for a couple months?"

I'm actually surprised we don't see this more, and imagine it must be happening a bit privately? I don't have any sets to sell anymore, what I'm left with is keepers. What if I get bored with a set or don't get one in play ever? I'd love to move it along, but there's no way I'm selling these sets as my price won't keep. So finding good folks to give them to for free seems to be the best move forward for them as well as me!

Collective chipping among a small group of locals is something that is an interesting thought but is very difficult to achieve in practice. There needs to be a lot of trust involved to make it work. I've approached local PCF'ers about reslly nice sets and have half joked we put together a group buy to buy the set and keep it at one house where we would meet and use the set.

It perhaps works best when sets overlap. Like for example, I can call @Irish up and say I'm going to have a game next month using the Protege's. We each bought a rack of the nickels for the set with the agreement that whenever we both need them, we can drop them off with each other. This is a bit more difficult to accomplish with a whole set unless the market or perceived value is exactly the same without one party feeling cheated in terms of value.

Like I love my local crew, but I wouldn't loan out my Riverboats or customs unless I was playing in the game too so I can keep an eye on things and that any unknown players won't abuse the chips. If it's something replaceable like my WSOP tributes from BRPRO, knock yourself out. But say I wanted to trade my CDI's with another local for a few months that havent seen play for a year, and they had an equal value set that I could try out, I'm totally game, just as long as I got an invite to the game where my CDI's were going to be used. I'm sure they'd feel that way about whatever set they would loan out too. I think it could work, but you'd have to trust the other parties wholly.

 

[BarrieJ3]

The only way to obtain grail sets nowadays is to:

1) Have a lot of disposable income (maybe 10 - 25% of PCF)

2) Get in on the ground floor of a NAGB

3) Flip your way up to them

Hopefully I can soon be in category 1, because 2 & 3 aren’t really options for me. I do think a recession is coming (in the US) so it will be interesting to see what chip prices are at that point.

Dealing with #3 chippers is exhausting. It's like 105% of PCFers.

I legitimately had a guy send me his address Saturday at 10 AM. As the Post Office closes at 1 PM, they were sent out after the weekend.

"I'm a little disappointed that these didn't go out over the weekend......any chance you'd be willing to split the shipping?"

For fucks sake, it's like living in a flea market here.

 

[upNdown]

Sorry to hear Mike. You are one of the most selfless chippers I have met; hoping all the karma finds its way to you sooner than later.

Not directed at @charitycase or at @Rieguy but I don’t get it. Who needs “chipping karma?” I mean, nobody here NEEDS anything, right? We could play with dice chips if we had to.
And I’m sure this boils down to me being more of a player than a collector, but I never understand phrases like “accomplish great things in this hobby” or even “great chipper.” Some people put more time and money into chip collecting than others, but at the end of the day, nothing has been accomplished, except amassing a collection that’s worth however much you or your heirs will get when you sell. There are no winners here.
And I’ve never woken up and thought “maybe today is the day somebody will sell me a set at cost!” I for sure have given much better deals than I’ve gotten, for whatever reasons that don’t matter. But I promise you, I’m not keeping score. Again, I’m no collector and I’ve admittedly slacked on the whole “networking” aspect over the years, but I guess that’s because I’m not a collector?
I dunno, the more I read this conversation the more I realize some of us are coming at this thing from FAR different angles. To me, pcf is a place to waste time on the internet, a place to buy chips for my poker game, and a place to meet people to play poker with. The whole collecting aspect of it - I guess I’m just missing that gene. Because so many of the concepts discussed here are from far left field.

 

[MrCatPants]

Custom CPC are now in mainstream contention when compared to the rise in price of fully playable RHC and THC sets. And the Abbiati GB chips are even less cost, once thought almost unthinkable.

IMO the Abiatti's are really underrated (usually by folks who haven't handled them - and yes I know for some they just don't like non-THC). Really happy with my set (wasn't in the original group buy, but pieced one together after a few purchases.)

 

[Eriks]

Right, I understand that. Not taking a shot at you, just feel like jumping in on the priced out of this hobby topic and saying




is a bit disingenuous.

No worries, it’s probably me I’m doing a poor job getting my points across. I had those BCC sets AND the LCO set, I didn’t sell the LCOs to be able to buy the BCCs. And I wouldn’t sell them now to buy a THC set.

I probably spent $2500-3000 building the LCO set and I thought I would never sell it. Enter covid, enter thousands of new members, enter WW. Bye bye reasonably priced Paulsons. I saw others sell at ridiculous prices and looked at my set and decided I don’t need to keep a set like that when people are ready to spend these obsured amounts of money to get it. I don’t aspire to be Robin Hood/mother Teresa. I have hooked up people/extended good deals I’ve received, but I don’t regret getting good value out of the LCOs. Otherwise there would have been zero incentive for me to sell them.

 

[BarrieJ3]

Collective chipping among a small group of locals is something that is an interesting thought but is very difficult to achieve in practice. There needs to be a lot of trust involved to make it work. I've approached local PCF'ers about reslly nice sets and have half joked we put together a group buy to buy the set and keep it at one house where we would meet and use the set.

I would love this (group buy). I've instigated it several times. I think this is the BEST way for some us (including me). Lol the problem is my locals can all afford pretty much whatever they want

 

[Rieguy]

Not directed at @charitycase or at @Rieguy but I don’t get it. Who needs “chipping karma?” I mean, nobody here NEEDS anything, right? We could play with dice chips if we had to.
And I’m sure this boils down to me being more of a player than a collector, but I never understand phrases like “accomplish great things in this hobby” or even “great chipper.” Some people put more time and money into chip collecting than others, but at the end of the day, nothing has been accomplished, except amassing a collection that’s worth however much you or your heirs will get when you sell. There are no winners here.
And I’ve never woken up and thought “maybe today is the day somebody will sell me a set at cost!” I for sure have given much better deals than I’ve gotten, for whatever reasons that don’t matter. But I promise you, I’m not keeping score. Again, I’m no collector and I’ve admittedly slacked on the whole “networking” aspect over the years, but I guess that’s because I’m not a collector?
I dunno, the more I read this conversation the more I realize some of us are coming at this thing from FAR different angles. To me, pcf is a place to waste time on the internet, a place to buy chips for my poker game, and a place to meet people to play poker with. The whole collecting aspect of it - I guess I’m just missing that gene. Because so many of the concepts discussed here are from far left field.

I also consider myself "more of a player than a collector" (just visit the home games thread or ask to see any of my chips in play). In my opinion, you're just overthinking it. We all go about this hobby (key word) differently. If someone helps their friends in reaching their chipping goals, a simple reciprocation or hoping that they can achieve their own is a reasonable sentiment.

 

[warma]

Don’t forget Matsui.

I got a quote last year for 1700pcs of CC730 at $1.30/ea. Plus art at $215/inlay.

They even agreed to do 1000 at that price.

 

[RichMahogany]

I would love this (group buy). I've instigated it several times. I think this is the BEST way for some us (including me). Lol the problem is my locals can all afford pretty much whatever they want

Nah….

 

[upNdown]

I've approached local PCF'ers about reslly nice sets and have half joked we put together a group buy to buy the set and keep it at one house where we would meet and use the set.

Another FAR different angle for me. I appreciate playing with good chips at other peoples’ games. But not to the extent that I’d cough up a nickel for the privilege.
Spending money on Paulsons has always been easy for me, because it’s so easy to cash out when tastes change, when the market changes or even when I need the cash.
But buying into a collective just so I have the opportunity to splash around some grail chips once a month? That is all Greek to me.