What should a new chipper buy (1 Viewer)

[BGinGA]

As someone noted, you will buy China Clays first and then upgrade later which will cost you more in the long run. I'm not sure that's the case with me. I guess time will tell, but the China Clays are less costly, feel similar, and are much easier/cheaper to get than Paulsons. I'm hooked on them.

Yeah, I said the exact same thing. In fact, after getting my cc Pharaoh's Club chips, I thought, "I'll never need to buy another set, ever!" Yeah, right.

All I can do is give you a serious warning: Never buy any mint leaded Paulson casino chips with real shaped inlays on the THC mold. Or mint TRK scrowns. Either one is extremely likely to send you down a very expensive path..... just ask the 20,000+ mint chips in my vault, nearly all of which are worth more than I paid. And that china clay set is long-gone, sold at a loss.

 

[Psypher1000]

sold at a loss.

Happily at that.

 

[BGinGA]

Don't get me wrong.... I did like the CC chips, but I instantly knew they'd never see table time again after the first set of mint casino Paulson chips arrived. Damn things are like crack, too....

 

[inca911]

If you get grubby casino used chips, plan on needing an ultrasonic cleaner too. Just gave some new arrivals a nice bath.

 

[RiverAce01]

As a still somewhat new chipper, I would recommend jumping right into China clays. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't start with anything less than CC chips. Provided of course you can afford them.

Personally I like the CPS chips, obviously for the World Series look to them. I also like the Dunes CC chips but I just like to see people's reactions when they see the CPS chips. Obviously there are other CCs out there but as a beginner that's what I'd go for. There are cheaper options like Majestic which I hear people like. But I've built a CPS set just from buying them from the classifieds on this site.

Eventually I'll get a Paulson set when I have the money. I'd like to have true casino quality chips. But I'm still somewhat a beginner so I'll hold off.

If you can, in case no one else has mentioned this, jump on the Boardwalk group buy. Price is good and I think they're gonna be great chips. I have a slight bias since I play at Borgata often and am really looking forward to having them

 

[Chicken Rob]

I'll chime in here since I'm only a couple of months into this...

My journey began by needing some Bounty chips for our tournament. (We have always used dice chips and had never really considered upgrading). I had grown tired of everyone always asking...How much is this worth? How much is that one worth? Etc.

Anyway, I started seeing all of these awesome chips out there. I had no idea that all of these choices were available. The more I looked, the more I wanted something different than dice chips. I ordered some samples sets from Apache Poker Chips of what I thought I would want for a tournament set and cash set. After showing the samples to my wife, she pointed to the most expensive China clays citing the other ones looked "cheap and fake". So I now have a huge 1200+ collection of Majestics. I would check out their site and prices as an option.

Getting the fever, I started to get the disease too wanting casino chips for better cash games in the future. So I started assembling a casino used Paulson set. Just to let you know that it will be expensive and most likely come with complications....especially if you need a frac (fractional chip) like $0.25 or $0.50. You can rarely find these in casino chips and generally have to find 200+ of another chip and then buy labels at $0.30 per chip (plus the chip cost) to finish your set. Yes, these chips will hold their value but honestly, my group played with the Majestic chips for the first time the other day and as long as they have durability, I'm hooked on them. The chips ar $0.39 each, they feel and real, and they have all denominations available instead of having to find other chips and special labels. There are other China Clays like Dunes, Milanos, etc out there that might work for you.

As someone noted, you will buy China Clays first and then upgrade later which will cost you more in the long run. I'm not sure that's the case with me. I guess time will tell, but the China Clays are less costly, feel similar, and are much easier/cheaper to get than Paulsons. I'm hooked on them.

Like everyone said above...buy sample sets of everything you might want and maybe of a few than are above you budget. Make your choice from there.

Lol that China clays feel similar to Paulson/trk/ASM/cpc.

 

[Rhodeman77]

A word of caution about China Clay chips, there have been multiple sets that have issues with big chucks of the chips breaking off. And lots of flaking in general. I have seen it first hand with Dunes and Pharaoh's sets.

There are a few threads talking about with pics. The CC chips in general are a new product compared to Paulson and CPC so their life span is unknown.

 

[codeman00]

Lol that China clays feel similar to Paulson/trk/ASM/cpc.

It's obvious that we all have our opinion. It's also evident that some of us are more courteous about it than others.

I have some mint Top Hat & Canes and Paulson Aztars in front of me...maybe they feel a bit different? But not $1-$3 per chip different...at least not to me anyway.

A word of caution about China Clay chips, there have been multiple sets that have issues with big chucks of the chips breaking off. And lots of flaking in general. I have seen it first hand with Dunes and Pharaoh's sets.

There are a few threads talking about with pics. The CC chips in general are a new product compared to Paulson and CPC so their life span is unknown.

This definitely is a risk...but it seemed to me that most if not all of those complaints were 1-2 years old. Maybe I haven't seen all of them but hopefully the problem has been fixed with newer chips.

 

[Chicken Rob]

It's obvious that we all have our opinion. It's also evident that some of us are more courteous about it than others.

I have some mint Top Hat & Canes and Paulson Aztars in front of me...maybe they feel a bit different? But not $1-$3 per chip different...at least not to me anyway.



This definitely is a risk...but it seemed to me that most if not all of those complaints were 1-2 years old. Maybe I haven't seen all of them but hopefully the problem has been fixed with newer chips.

Sorry that I hurt your feelings. I thought the claim was misleading. Didn't want noobs to be mislead.

Whether or not it's worth the price difference is a personal matter for each person to decide.

Whether or not they feel similar is considerably more objective, and frankly they do not.

I have no problems with the idea of China clays. I just don't think they are what you're describing.

 

[Francisho]

If you get grubby casino used chips, plan on needing an ultrasonic cleaner too. Just gave some new arrivals a nice bath.
View attachment 97002

But I don't have a ultrasonic cleaner... Usually where can a person find a place to clean his chips?

 

[upNdown]

I don't know why anybody who actually wants paulsons would put money into china clays, even as a short term solution. You can still get the Cincinnati horseshoes - you could get a great set of those for well under a grand. If those don't satisfy you, there's enough stuff on the classifieds here that you could find something you'll be happy with without waiting too long.
If you don't want to spend a grand on chips, fine, nobody's gonna argue with you, go for the China Clays. But if you're a poker player who has a weekly game, chances are you're prepared to piss away $100 or more a week anyway, so don't cry poor. And if money is an actual concern, why dump $200-$300 into china clays when that could get you a good chunk of a Paulson set?

 

[upNdown]

But I don't have a ultrasonic cleaner... Usually where can a person find a place to clean his chips?

You can scrub them by hand. It's a labor of love, but it's really no big deal.

 

[inca911]

But I don't have a ultrasonic cleaner... Usually where can a person find a place to clean his chips?

You can also use a Magic Eraser to clean chips by hand. If you buy from someone on here, they might have an ultrasonic and can clean the chips you purchase for you (or just buy relatively clean chips). Your first goal is to get samples or play time with chips to see what chips you personally like.

 

[BGinGA]

And if money is an actual concern, why dump $200-$300 into china clays when that could get you a good chunk of a Paulson set?

Another aspect is that a $300 investment in new china clays will return about $250 or less when it comes time to sell..... vs a typical resale value of $350 (or higher) when buying new Paulson chips. View from a long-term perspective, you're essentially throwing away $100 when spending that $300 on china clays.

 

[Mental Nomad]

You can scrub them by hand. It's a labor of love, but it's really no big deal.

Yeah, you made need an old toothbrush to get gunk out of the Top Hat & Cane recess, but you'll be ok.

 

[Chicken Rob]

Or buy or borrow an ultrasonic. They're not that expensive.

 

[DrStrange]

You might find an ultrasonic cleaner in the hands of a serious shooter. That is a more common use of the higher power cleaner - people who reuse their brass have to clean it first and often use an ultrasonic cleaner. You should avoid trying the lower powered / smaller capacity jewelry cleaners. They don't work so well and the through-put is slow.

However, there is no reason to jump on the ultrasonic cleaning for your first set. I cleaned thousands of chips by hand before I got an ultrasonic upgrade. 500 or 600 chips is more than enough for a one table set and those can be cleaned by hand in a few hours. Better to spend your first money on chips rather than specialty gear to clean chips. If you get to the point where a thousand chip set seems a little small - - - then it might make sense to buy a good chip cleaning system.

Buy what makes you happy -=- DrStrange

 

[Mental Nomad]

You don't actually need eyes to clean chips. You can do it while watching TV.

 

[Chris Flynn]

You can scrub them by hand. It's a labor of love, but it's really no big deal.

I purchased about 1100 Horseshoe Cincy chips and cleaned all by hand. A barrel or two while watching a TV show. A little tedious at times but also enjoyed the process.

 

[MegaTon44]

The sage advice given to me when I started chipping was to buy whatever casino Paulson chips I could afford. Most of us are just "renting" these chips, as we will eventually sell them to fund another chip purchase, typically at breakeven or better.

The Paulson fantasy sets (Classics, WTHC, NPS, etc) are usually the reason new chippers find this site since they are generally unaware of decommissioned casino chips. My recommendation would be to avoid them with your first purchase because of cost, especially for a cash set. You can get most $1-$25 primary casino chips for $1 or less, so I believe this is an economical route to get acclimated with Paulsons.

From there, the addiction will only grow, so hang on

 

[upNdown]

The sage advice given to me when I started chipping was to buy whatever casino Paulson chips I could afford. Most of us are just "renting" these chips, as we will eventually sell them to fund another chip purchase, typically at breakeven or better.

The Paulson fantasy sets (Classics, WTHC, NPS, etc) are usually the reason new chippers find this site since they are generally unaware of decommissioned casino chips. My recommendation would be to avoid them with your first purchase because of cost, especially for a cash set. You can get most $1-$25 primary casino chips for $1 or less, so I believe this is an economical route to get acclimated with Paulsons.

From there, the addiction will only grow, so hang on

I agree with all of this. It's worth mentioning though, that those fantasy chips seen to hold their value, especially if you want to ship then to Europe.

 

[BGinGA]

Only recently. Wasn't that long ago that Classics or even CDI on the PAULSON CHIPS mold wouldn't pull $1/chip in the marketplace. Still not worth more than that to me.

 

[upNdown]

Interesting.

 

[Chicken Rob]

It's also worth noting if you're paying $1 or less for paulsons, they are VERY worn, and may be as thin as 21 chips per barrel in a rack.I havene't seen good condition paulsons in this price range in years.

 

[Chris Flynn]

It's also worth noting if you're paying $1 or less for paulsons, they are VERY worn, and may be as thin as 21 chips per barrel in a rack.I havene't seen good condition paulsons in this price range in years.

This is a fair point - my added observation however is that the worn Paulsons still feel and stack better than CCs (the stacking advantage is a big item for me) It is amazing that the CC manufacturers have done a very nice job in approximating the sound of Paulson chips. My Majestics (with which I am very happy) sound amazing close.

 

[Fuzzy mike]

I started going to Vegas with my mom in 1980. I had a flawless Id so I started gambling. My own money I earned myself.my cpc set is aprox 1600 chips. We always stayed at the mgm grand....this was before the fire....we played blackjack...I mostly broke even.my mother did so well they banned her from play. All this is to say the cpc chips feel right to me in every way. Also I now play poker ....Texas pot limit ...1 and 2 blinds. When I bought my chips I was so busy with my growing business that I neglect Ed to realize that for the same money I could have made a awesome custom set. I was paying custom prices but not getting custom design. I always say that if you are not making mistakes you are not doing anything.
I also remember that moms 100 dollar chips we mostly black.... Could be wrong but that's what I think. So a custom set of cpc is really about recreating those many trips with my mom. It is also bringing a little piece of Vegas to my everyday life. A smile is something I can always use. I think also I want to create that feeling for my friends at our home game. Big stacks of quality chips will help.i don't want to plan to long or to little. I only joined acoupleof days ago. Anybody got link to chip designers

 

[Frank]

Most new chippers don't want to spend that much money for Paulson chips so they get something a little better than dice chips. Then they don't like those very much and get China Clay or ceramics. And after a while they realize they still aren't the real deal. Then they finally break down and get Paulsons.

But in the meantime they have spent a lot of money on all those other lesser quality chips that never are worth what they paid for them. So they end up spending even more money than if they bought Paulsons right from the start.

This is what samples are for! Having Paulson and china clay samples in hand at the same time made me realize it wasn't worth my time or money buying a china clay set. Before I got samples, I thought I'd go for the CPS china clay chips since there were tons of denoms available or something. After getting them among other samples I thought they were the worst of the bunch! Sure, there are some Paulsons I don't like nearly as much as others, but it really depends on YOUR preferences, and the only way to find out for sure is to get samples! (should I say samples again?)

Your budget falls right in the range of what I paid for my first used Paulson set. They were cleaned by the seller so I didn't have to do anything! They are very worn and barrels of different denoms do not match in height but they are Paulsons (and I'd take them over china clays any day!). Pretty sure they'll hit the classifieds at some point, but I don't think there would be enough bank for a $100 minimum buy-in cash game.

 

[surferb]

True, but a new chipper likely wants to play with the chips and Chinas are much easier to get in the denoms you need, especially for tourneys. Heck, I have many Paulson sets and I'm not all that happy with qty/denoms of any.

Another aspect is that a $300 investment in new china clays will return about $250 or less when it comes time to sell..... vs a typical resale value of $350 (or higher) when buying new Paulson chips. View from a long-term perspective, you're essentially throwing away $100 when spending that $300 on china clays.

 

[Fuzzy mike]

True, but a new chipper likely wants to play with the chips and Chinas are much easier to get in the denoms you need, especially for tourneys. Heck, I have many Paulson sets and I'm not all that happy with qty/denoms of any.

1. Chips are rarely an investment and you shouldn't look at them that way.
2. Car collectors have the philosophy of "if a car costs less than 50,000 dollars and makes you happy and you're not spending grocery money you should buy it regardless of investment potential. This is what Jay Leno did and now his cars are worth a bizillion dollars.But even if his cars were almost worthless he would still be a happy man because he bought what he loved. He loves his cars so much that people gave him cars, fire trucks etc. for free because they knew he would give them a good home.
3. This brings up the point BUY WHAT YOU LOVE, and or what you can afford.
4. If you want an investment I recommend silver rounds, they run about 16$ an ounce right now.
5. I love my CPC/ASM chips. I would love them even more if I could design my own custom set other than the stock designs I already own. My daughter has already started designing new chips.

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there

 

[codeman00]

True, but a new chipper likely wants to play with the chips and Chinas are much easier to get in the denoms you need, especially for tourneys. Heck, I have many Paulson sets and I'm not all that happy with qty/denoms of any.

This 100%.