My Pokerchips.com custom order - notes, pics, etc. |
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Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:02 pm GMT by The_Manimal
Hello all.
Long time lurker, occasional poster...I mostly do my stuff via PM. I've watched this forum for about a year and have gained much info from it. The sharing of all this information enabled me to narrow my choices down and choose my ultimate personal chip set. They arrived the other day, so I figured it was my turn to share some info back with this community that has been such a great help to me.
After much deliberation, I went with the folks at Pokerchips.com. Their product came as closest to what I wanted, backed with a reputation for quality and a "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" promise. I chose 1000 horsehead mold chips, using my color choices and edge spots with my custom center inlay with color. I placed the order on September 9, and they arrived on December 16, just about the timeframe they estimated. I didn't order a case or any storage rack, but the chips arrived well packed in a single box, protected in cardboard covered trays/racks of 100 chips each. As mentioned elsewhere, my order contained the "Thank You" card with care/cleaning instructions and other pertinent POC information.
As for the chips themselves, they are simply awesome! Having done tons of research on what to get, I would say I would be hard pressed to be surprised, but I was. It's one thing to look at some samples, but to have hundreds of the chips of MY color choices laid out in front of me was something to see! Their quality is just superb: each inlay is perfectly aligned with the edge spots at the proper 10-2-6 positions on each and every chip, both sides. I originally had concerns about the inlay coming off, but trust me....it is on there to stay. The colors are great, and as told elsewhere, they do begin to stand out even better with use. As they came out-of-the-box, there is definitely a chalky feel to them, but with a simple wipe down with a rag and then normal use, they are just fantastic. Already receiving rave comments about them and how they will add that "extra something special" to my game.
If there would be one issue, it would be this: in making my color choices, I did not simply go off the chart on their website. I collected samples, to include another line they made for other vendors. I collected many pictures of their custom work from this forum and across the web. Doing so, I was confident in my color choices that what I chose would match what I was viewing as "the right color". As it turns out, I misjudged one of the colors: I chose the Mandarin Red, believing it to be a darker, richer red similar to maroon. It turns out that color does exist, but it's just their basic "Red". While this is not a huge issue for me, it is something to note and consider for other potential buyers. If your unsure about how something would look, I would suggest contacting them during your order process to request a sample chip of the color in question....it may save you some disappointment in the long run. The extra time you take now, even if you must wait for a color sample, should be well worth it in the long run.
About their quality control: The order quantity per chip/color was correct, as was the varying denominations for my inlay design matched to each color of chip. To my surprise, packed in a separate box marked "extras" were indeed some extra chips of each color. In examining them closely, I'm pretty sure these are the "seconds" that were weeded out of the "approved OK" by their quality control process. note: I have no proof of this but I'm pretty sure based on other folks dealings with them I have read about - I will confirm this with them when I can. A few of these "extras" had a noticeable flaw, like a small ding or color bleed somewhere on the chip. Only a few had an off-center inlay. However, I would say for about half of these extra's I couldn't find a flaw with. So, while some of these may not be "perfect", the bulk of these extra's are certainly worthwhile of most folks quality standards - but not so with the Pokerchips.com folks. My point is: if I'm right about this, they are being downright nit-picky in this process, even more so than I would be - and I demand the best. So, for me and my expectations for quality, they far surpassed even my strict standards.
My color choices are below:
Purple w/DG Pink $100
Orange w/LT Green $25
Mandarin Red w/DG Peach $5
Pink w/DG Yellow $2.50
Black w/DG Green $1
Imperial Blue w/Gray .50¢
Green w/DG Pink .25¢
White w/Purple .10¢
My group tends to play a diverse game with varying buy-in's and starting chip counts, so I built this set to accommodate all types of games. We are one of the few groups I know of that prefers "real cash" amounts to be reflected in our starting chip counts (to each his own). Our tournaments vary from anywhere from a $5 buy-in to $100 buy-in, with cash games being all kinds of limits, depending on what we feel like playing. Plus I'll admit it, I just like the different displays of color!
Below in thread I will now attempt to attach some pics. At the very least I've provided here a link to a site where they are hosted. Feel free to respond with any thoughts you'd care to share.
update 2/23/05 - link removed as it's now inactive
Best Regards:
-The Manimal
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Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:13 pm GMT by The_Manimal
Ok, seems I'm having a brain-fart or am not understanding the technology as much as I figured.
Anyone care to provide me a quick "how to" to actually publish/post/upload some of the actual pics here to the forum/thread?
feeling stupid....
Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:13 pm GMT by ncskiier
Merry Christmas to you. Nice chips. I have always been a fan of pc.com's quality.
Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:18 pm GMT by ncskiier
Click the "Img" button on the posting screen followed by the link to the pic and then close it with the "Img" button.
Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:34 pm GMT by eve16v
Very nice. I bought a custom set from them about almost 3yrs ago now, and they just get better and better each time I use them. :D
Posted Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:59 pm GMT by warewulf619
Nice chips! That's funny to see a .10 cent and $2.50 chip! I don't think I've ever seen a decimal point on a chip. 
Posted Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:20 am GMT by TenPercenter
Congratulations on the chips. I've become a big fan of the HH mold from ASM.
Where'd you get the custom card protectors? Or buttons, whatever you use them for. I'd love to get one or two for my Egyptian set.
Ten
(p.s. If the answer was in your post, I missed it)
Posted Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:08 am GMT by Nut Flush
Nice chips and great write up! I think I'll be calling them myself once my insurance claim gets settled :D
Posted Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:43 am GMT by Teekan
nice chips..... don't worry abou the red. The colors change (darker) with normal use of using the chips. the natural oils on your hands will change the color of the chips.
Posted Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:40 am GMT by saper88aa
Can i ask how much for the whole set and how many did you get total.
Posted Mon Dec 27, 2004 9:47 pm GMT by AZnuts
Nice looking chips. I'll be placing an order soon with them.
Question for Manimal - is that 25 cent chip "regular green", as opposed to their "light" green? I love that green/dg pink combo.
Posted Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:23 am GMT by Wooderson
Where did you get those metal medallions made?
Posted Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:45 pm GMT by The_Manimal
Hey All....Happy Holidays to everyone. I'll try to reply and answer everyone's questions thus far:
-We use the "coins" as a 1st prize award in our tournaments. They are 45mm, double-sided coins...the pic in this thread shows both sides. I run all of our tournaments, and they are co-sponsored by a friend of mine. So, he got one side of the coin for his logo, and I got the other. We also have shirts made up as well from time to time, and these items have gotten popular with our group. The "coin" idea came from him...he's a police officer, and it's a popular recognition method used in law enforcement, so we just adapted it over for our use. As assumed, they make great card protectors, and work well to start a little smack talk when needed. At the moment, we enjoy telling those who haven't won one (yet) they suffer from "CDD - Coin Deficit Disorder". Hey, it's all part of the game!
We financed the coins by taking a part of everyone's entry fee and covering the costs. The initial cost was the most, as we had to have the die cut for TWO logo's, then there was a color charge, and finally the costs of the coins themselves. The initial investment for 50 coins (minimum order) was $300. While that may sound steep, we have a large overall group, and the cost was easily covered from a prize pool fee quite easily. (ie: we had a 30 man tourney with a $50 buyin....plenty of funds to cover everything and still have a good payout). That will cover us for a lot of events, and down the road we can change the color somewhat to reflect different runs of the coin if we wish. The good news is future coins will only cost us $2.50 each, as again, we already have the die cut and made. My co-sponsor used a vendor who runs a small business...he doesn't have a website that I know of, but if anyone is interested, I can obtain his email address and pass it along.
-Although the red I received was not was I originally wanted, I've decided they aren't that far off to matter to me. If anything, I think I may re-do my $25 chip to something else with a good contrast to the red.
-My green chip is indeed the normal green. (33-Green with 82-DayGlo Pink, as right from their website). I know this is a common/popular choice for a chip, but I think it looks so good I went with it as well. That and the Black with Dayglo Green is my favorite chip.
-The set total was 1000 chips ordered, but they sent me a good many extra of each, so the total is actually closer to 1200. While I can't confirm all orders would have that many extra included, it does seem to be "business as normal" for them to include some. I didn't get a case, but with a 1000 chip order I did get a discount for .85/chip, so the total with shipping came to $915. Which BTW, this was the clincher for me to go with a custom chip from this vendor over any premade "fantasy" chip. I got exactly what I wanted, my colors, my denoms, my logo, in the exact quantities I wanted, for under $1 per chip....I would be hard pressed to go with anyone else for a fantasy chip or even a custom chip order at that price.
Hope this covers everything...feel free to keep the comments coming.
-The Manimal
Posted Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:59 pm GMT by warewulf619
WHY a $2.50 chip? Not so sure I understand the .10 chip, but I guess those are for the $5 buy-in games.
Posted Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:19 pm GMT by The_Manimal
Ah, my $2.50 chip. It is quite a conversation starter. The main reason I got some is that there IS a standard casino chip of this amount, and it is traditionally pink (not too many folks see these chips too often, but check out the roulette table). I like a little bit of everything in my set, so I included some. They also work well in some of our limit games, where there is a .50 ante and a $2 max bet, so they get thrown around a bit. (consider on a table/game of these stakes, $5 is often the biggest chip, so they are great for making change. Of course, folks tend to try to obtain/hoard the higher chips during play, so it adds to the game for "who has all the higher dollar chips".)
My group STILL plays a LOT of other, traditional home poker games. Thus, the .10 chip plays well here, especially for games where someone is trying to stay in but wants to cap the raises. (ever play "Pass the Trash"?....someone usually gets killed during this one.....) And unlike the higher dollar chips, folks tend to dump their dimes as fast as they can, and there are usually pots with a bunch of dimes in them...again, adding color and different chips to the game.
There is a little more info as to the "why's"....granted, you won't see too many folks using these odd denom's, but for my game they fit in very well.
-The Manimal
Posted Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:59 am GMT by Fins
Great chips, Congrats!!!
Love your winner coin idea.
I'd be interested in the source for the coins as well... feel free to PM me if you'd rather not post his e-mail. Is the source local?
- Fins
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