Here's an update:
CCs: After they'd been sitting out on the paper towels for 7 days, the unlabelled pink chips dried completely. The labelled ones were dry as well except for a slight residue on the labels, which I can live with since they're going to be peeled off anyhow. They're ready to be stacked and racked.
Cleaning the factory dust and oiling them resulted in a slightly brighter (10% or so) appearance, especially the blue and orange chips. They feel more or less the same as when I took them out of the wrappings for the most part.
Paulsons: After 7 days they absorbed the oil pretty well but there was still a noticeable slickness to them, and the labels/inlays still had a little bit of a buildup on them. After wiping them off with a paper towel, the chips are good to go.
I've had most of these Paulsons since 2013, and aside from cleaning them with soap and water when I got them (they were FILTHY), I'd never oiled them to this point. The end result was a chip that appeared 50% brighter and cleaner than before.
What I learned:
Oiling 3000 poker chips was a major pain in the ass. I won't be doing this again. It took myself and two Moxie-Minions 5 hours on a Saturday (including a 45 minute break to eat) to wash and oil them all, and then some more time here and there messing around with them over the course of the last week.
If I would have know I would have poker chips spread across every flat surface in my office for an entire week, I'd probably never have started this project.
Bottom Line: Oiling the Paulsons was definitely worth the trouble, but if I had to do this again I'd just rinse the CCs with soapy water and lay them out to dry and be done with it. There has been an improvement, but the marginal gains was just way more work than it was worth.
