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Windwalker’s Chipping Journey in Pr0n0grAph1C Detail (21 Viewers)

Windwalker said:
As I’ve been hunting for chips, I’ve tried all kinds of strategies. I’ve placed tiny classifieds all over the world; I’ve spent time at estate sales; I’ve made friends with collectors and casino owners.

But no matter the avenue, my best results have come from establishing genuine relationships with people who used to be connected to some of the casinos that used leaded chips with shaped inlays.

A few months ago, one such relationship tipped me off about a gentleman, now in his early 80s, who was once considered the “Saul Bass” of boat / cruise casino design. For about 30 years, his design shop was responsible for the visual identity, design/re-design and development of thousands of artifacts for hundreds of boat casinos, including what their chips looked like. It’s actually why so many of the boat chips from the late eighties and early nineties are so similar looking to each other.

I was able to track him down to Delaware, where he is now retired, curmudgeonly, and frustrated with his inability to do anything because of COVID. I made friends with him, and paid him a total of 6 visits so far, sometimes just sitting on his porch with him in silence.

We discussed the evolution of the design industry, what’s happening now, what’s changed and what hasn’t. Through those discussions, I discovered that as part of his compensation, he was able to secure small live sets (1500 - 3000 chips) of almost every set his firm designed. Of course, he also has all kinds of other artifacts, but the chips had to be handled differently because they would have been live at the time of him getting them for his portfolio.

These chips have never seen the inside of any of the boats, cruises, or casinos they were intended for. They have just been in his possession for decades. He had no idea there was even a group or a community that collected them, and considered them just nostalgia since all of the casinos are now defunct.

I convinced him to sell me his entire portfolio / inventory of chips. There are 48 boat casinos in the collection, between 17-22 of which I am fairly certain no one has ever seen on PCF before.

So that’s the story.

EDIT: FYI — He was responsible for the Starlites, RVCLs and Regency Cruise Lines.
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You got to sit on a porch in total silence!?! I would give anything for that in my household. Now I am jealous........and if you got in a nap too......whoa..... really jealous.....
 
Sick sir great job! You remind me of my father in collecting, it's all about the relationship building. He was collector of Marx toy trains, and owned at one time one of almost everything produced. He was always tracking down undiscovered items that end up making into collector guides and all that jazz.
I can't wait to see the pictures!
 
Windwalker said:
Wouldn’t it be the Don Lapre customer of chipping? :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

I’ve written about this strategy before, works for older and more rural demographics, especially overseas.
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No, Don placed all those thousands and thousands of tiny classified ads first to amass his fortune.. then he shared it with the world...
Yeah, almost posted the video when you first mentioned it.. couldn't resist this time
 
softchewy said:
No, Don placed all those thousands and thousands of tiny classified ads first to amass his fortune.. then he shared it with the world...
Yeah, almost posted the video when you first mentioned it.. couldn't resist this time
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Ah, I never really knew his business model, but I remember the informercials for sure. I thought he taught people to make money by placing classifieds.
 
joeyshin said:
I can imagine this story being made into a movie. Sitting in a theater and watching the seen of WW and OMC sitting on his deck sharing a moment without saying anything. So poignant a tear forms in my eye. My wife looks over at me and says, “really??!? This is what you cry at??!? Is this movie just about some poker chips?!!?”

rotten tomatoes gives the movie 12%. Lol
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Working title.. "Boat chips and the old bastard"
 
Windwalker said:
Ah, I never really knew his business model, but I remember the informercials for sure. I thought he taught people to make money by placing classifieds.
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Are you telling me that he may have sold the service without ever proving it worked prior to selling it.. preposterous
I mean, I simply can't imagine a sleazy snake oil salesman would do such a thing.. :whistle: :whistling: :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

"Lapre was criticized as selling questionable business plans that often did not work for his clients. In June 2011, Lapre was charged with 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and promotional money laundering related to his Internet businesses. He was arrested on June 24, 2011, for failing to appear in court to face these charges"
 
softchewy said:
"Lapre was criticized as selling questionable business plans that often did not work for his clients. In June 2011, Lapre was charged with 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and promotional money laundering related to his Internet businesses. He was arrested on June 24, 2011, for failing to appear in court to face these charges"
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Oi vey. :jawdrop:
 
Windwalker said:
a gentleman, now in his early 80s, who was once considered the “Saul Bass” of boat / cruise casino design
Click to expand...
[jaw drop emoji]

Wow. What an amazing person he must have been. I'm glad you got to meet him.

Windwalker said:
So that’s the story.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for sharing it!

Windwalker said:
EDIT: FYI — He was responsible for the Starlites, RVCLs and Regency Cruise Lines.
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Saul Bass indeed. Phenomenal designs, with such style and flair.
 
Speaking of RVCLs etc., I’m curious what breakdowns your guy took on these sets. Here is a 1,000 piece RCVL set (plus two $500s). Similar breakdown I imagine, plus maybe 200 fracs for a set that size?

1612192729280.png
 
Windwalker said:
I was saying this to a PCFer via text today. We think chips are and should be the epicenter of everyone’s thought process. To most people, they really mean nothing unless they can cash them in. He looks at them as artifacts of his work, like a graphic designer would a poster. He has, nor do most people, have any idea of our tiny weird world of chip lovers.
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Well then I have to ask. When you told him about our hobby, how did he react?

I hope he got some joy out of knowing that there's a community of people out there that not only know about his work, but appreciate it, seek it out, and get both enjoyment and practical use from it.

But then again, I could imagine him just dismissing us as a bunch of weirdos, and he wouldn't exactly be wrong to do so.
 
Taghkanic said:
Speaking of RVCLs etc., I’m curious what breakdowns your guy took on these sets. Here is a 1,000 piece RCVL set (plus two $500s). Similar breakdown I imagine, plus maybe 200 fracs for a set that size?

View attachment 626845
Click to expand...
I didn’t come anywhere close to doing a full inventory sweep, but different boat casinos had different limits, and so many of the sets are broken up differently.

Some don’t have fracs at all, some have more roulette chips than others, and some of the boat casinos had $5k/$25k chips.

He didn’t think of breakdowns like we do, he thought of them more as a full, large samples of work he and his team had done. They just ended up being the equivalent of playable sets, they way we think about them.
I have a bunch of sorting work to do once I have them in hand.
 
Windwalker said:
I didn’t come anywhere close to doing a full inventory sweep, but different boat casinos had different limits, and so many of the sets are broken up differently.

Some don’t have fracs at all, some have more roulette chips than others, and some of the boat casinos had $5k/$25k chips.

He didn’t think of breakdowns like we do, he thought of them more as a full, large samples of work he and his team had done. They just ended up being the equivalent of playable sets, they way we think about them.
I have a bunch of sorting work to do once I have them in hand.
Click to expand...
Would be a great opportunity to hire a videographer and document your first encounter with those chips and discovering what is actually in those boxes.
 
I spent much of 2020 in Delaware. If only I had put in more porch time with the many retirees this score could have been mine. Damn it!

Its a fascinating story and I'm happy these chips will see the daylight again. I wonder if this discovery will have any reverberations with the singles collectors. I'm sure some people have “only known specimen” of chips that will now have many specimens.
 
when does WW pile all of the chips into 40 gallon drums and u-haul drive them from delaware to CA...
 

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