group custom chip order from somewhere other than chipco?

[bonanz]

first italianstang, could you post the contact info for blue chip?

also I was thinking about maybe having some custom chips done up, but was thinking about seeing if anyone wanted to get involved and do a "group order" but with blue chip or some other custom chip provider (i'm not really a fan of chipco or rtplastics really but I've never actually handled blue chips chips).

I live in vegas, so it may be a little easier to deal with blue chip (or any other custom chip provider).

I was just thinking about it, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions or thinks this is a good/bad idea please share /images/graemlins/smile.gif

bonanz

[italianstang]

The number for Blue Chip Co. is 702-399-0382. If you get put on hold at all, be sure to listen to the guy on the message who keep saying the customer service is their number one priority. They don't have a website because they are too dumb to know what a website is. Their email address is bluechipcompany@aol.com but sending emails to that address is risky, because they are idiots. Good luck. As a minor update, last Thursday that moron piece of sh*t Dave Endy called me and said that he sent my chips FedEx. So I should have them in a day or two, I will put up pictures as soon as I get them.

[toots]

Wow.

Good news, I hope.

Let's just hope that they didn't screw anything else up.

[Lumpy]

Custom clay thread (http://www.texasholdem-poker.com/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6065&start=0)

There is a thread going on here with some folks looking to get a group order of TR King or Pokerchips.com going. I think I would go with those companies over Blue Chip.

[bonanz]

Now I have nothing to base it on, but just going on pics and comparison to paul-son chips I would probalby prefer blue chip chips over those, howerver they do look nice and I would want to look into samples before doing anything.

no offense, but I must say this, italianstangs posts regarding bluechip come off as childish. every post is sprinkled with pointless name calling. I read through his log of events in placing his order and in honesty if the chips shipped last week everything is on schedule with the original time frame he gave him.

he asked to speed up the order half way into the process and he reluctantly agreed and did not meet the request. I would be disappointed but not suprised. Their customer service may be slightly below average by using only your experience as an example. I don't see really any reason for italianstang to slander bluechip or the endy's like he does.

Now that being said I appreciate italianstang logging the series of events for everyone to make their own judgement.
It would just seem unwise to write off bluechip as worthless due to one 2+2er's experience (although i'm more inclined to trust a 2+2er's opinion) when his experience is posted in great detail and really i don't see anything terribly wrong. Now I think italianstang saying something along the lines of read my log, here's my experience, I was rather unsatisfied, make your own opinion would come off much more professional, but his rants give the impression that he has a very personal beef with the endy's for some reason and is out to ruin their business...

To me, bluechip would be the most desirable custom home chip to pursue due to their similarity to paul-son, and I am not a big fan of chipco chips.

Thanks for the info italianstang and I hope your chips arrive and they are of the quality you hoped for. It would be great if you could post some pics and a level-headed wrap up of your experience when you get them and if you felt it was all worth it.

That's all for my mini rant, sorry if I offended anyone, it was not intended.

regards,
bonanz

[toots]

I've got some TR King samples, and I'd have to agree. I'd prefer Blue Chip, if I had any confidence at all that they could be had.

I actually like ASM a bit better than Blue Chip, but with their edge-spot restrictions, it puts me back at Blue Chip.

I've got some issues with Blue Chips, namely that their quality control seems a bit off and the chips are (intentionally?) lighter than a real casino chip. Still, sitting down with a stack of 25 new Blue Chips, compared to a stack of 25 new Paul-Sons, compared to a stack of 10 ASMs, compared to a stack of 8 T R Kings, I have to say that Blue Chip comes closest to the Paul-Son experience overall.

As for the quality control issues: I realize that off-center inlays are common to all brands. Shoot, I've even got some Paul-Sons that are so off center that the H&C molding goes off one edge, but even still, Blue Chips seem to have more than their share of off-center inlays.

Two other gripes with Blue Chip are:

1) the molding is too shallow. I like the texture of a good molding, and them clamshells just don't cut it

2) after use, the inlays tend to dimple in the middle. I'm assuming that they're thinner in the middle as one way to reduce their weight (as ItalianStang has suggested that their consumer chips are intentionally lighter than their casino chips).

[bonanz]

[ QUOTE ]
and them clamshells just don't cut it


[/ QUOTE ]

they are flames /images/graemlins/tongue.gif hehe

[italianstang]

First, I would like to say that the reason I chose Blue Chip to make my chips is the same reason that many of you are interested, because I like their chip the best. Once I found out that the price was quite reasonable, I liked it even more. So you are right, I cannot really slander the chip itself.

However, as for the customer service, and the reason that many of my posts seem to come off as "childish" is somewhat difficult to explain. In my online log of the process, and on this site, I can really only put little pieces of the puzzle down as it would not be helpful to write page long essays about horrible customer service and "lies/miscommunications" by the Endy's. So instead, I try to explain my resulting feelings from being jerked around, and in turn, that probably does come off as childish and peppered with too many cuss words.

As far as delivery dates and when I should have/will get my chips, I am really angry. Again, reading my log a neutral observer would wonder why. Dave gave me a projected date, we are slightly past it, and the chips are in the mail, no big deal right? In fact, as you mentioned, it appears as though I wanted to speed up the delivery of my chips half way through. However, again, not nearly enough of the story is coming across.

The entire process of creating 600 fully custom Blue Chip Co. poker chips, including picking colors and graphics, having the graphical artist create the proofs, having their inlay guy make and send the inlays and having Dave smoosh the pieces together takes about six days. Obviously they have other customers and are not focusing exclusively on me, BUT, very very simple steps took obnoxiously long, which is why I kept calling and calling. It took weeks for Dave to email my artwork to his artist. Frustrated weeks. Once the artist had the proofs finished, it took Dave weeks more to drive over to his house and pick them up to fax them to me. Finally, their inlay guy, who did the inlays in just a day or two, did not receive what he needed for additional weeks from Dave.

The problem is that everything that was out of Dave Endy's hands went smoothly and quickly, and everything he touched seemed to go backwards in time. This assessment of him and his customer service skills was backed up 100% in my mind when I went to Las Vegas and met with him. I will not go into all the excruciating details here.

Therefore, I am upset because:
1. He missed the delivery date he accepted by more than three weeks.
2. I had to call him dozens of times to keep him on track.
3. If, and this is a huge if, he had been even modestly interested in keeping me happy the whole process could have been completed in two weeks.

FedEx says they are coming tomorrow, if the art work is off-center, I can't be held responsible for my actions.

[toots]

So, if I wanted to order chips from Blue Chip, perhaps I should implement the following methodology:

1) Place order
2) Send LOTS of money
3) Forget that I ever expected anything in return
4) Be pleasantly surprised when I get my quarterly updates from the Endys.

I mean, come hell or high water, they're going to work on their own schedule (which sounds rather leisurely), so the key would be expect nothing and be happily surprised when one's expectations have been exceeded.

[ncskiier]

I agree that Blue Chip does make a nice product. I feel like their material is superior to TRKing and pokerchips.com but I hate their mold. It should be twice as deep, like the crown and horsehead molds. Also, what are their prices like? I have never heard it mentioned. I'll be very interested to see stangs' chips. I've never seen any of their custom home chips. The only ones of TRKing's I've seen have been Hoefler's, and I must say they are the dankest customs ever. (My son taught me that word, I hope I used it right.)

[ncskiier]

I answered my own question. In case anyone else was wondering, they are .75/chip with an art fee of $250-$500, depending on your design. Stang, I've seen your design, what were you charged?
Also, Dave said that at 50K they go down to .65.
I'm definitely interested in group buy.

[italianstang]

Thats the same as I paid. 75 cents each and 200 for art.

[warewulf]

I also dealt with Blue Chip briefly. I dealt with Charles, not Dave. Charles did seem to be a bit more with it than stang describes Dave. He responded to my calls somewhat, faxed me things when he said he would etc. Didn't always call back, I had to call when I wanted an answer to something. I did get the impression that my business was not very important to him, but I did feel I would eventually get chips from them on their schedule. I just decided not to because it would be too expensive artwork wise to get what I wanted, then I saw the suits design and was very impressed. I decided to get 1000 suits chips and scrap my own idea for now.

RE: how light they are -- they are definitely lighter and not as strong. I was able to easily break one in half (a james bond chip), couldn't break a paulson or chipco with the same force. Obviously shouldn't be an issue, I just wanted to see how much abuse they could take. The inlay is very high quality, I couldn't remove it easily with my trusty switchblade. Whereas I could remove an RT Plastics inlay very easily. Again, shouldn't be an issue unless you like to play with knives...

All in all, if I do decide to go ahead with my chip design, at this point I probably would go with Blue Chip since they seem to have a one of a kind product, are the closest looking home chip to Paulsons. I would just say you would have to be persistent and VERY VERY patient.

warewulf

[Slow Play Ray]

I may be very interested in a group buy. Please keep me informed...

[toots]

I'm medium interested in a group buy, which means:

1) It can't happen after I just bought another really expensive thing
2) The artwork is totally cool

Obviously, both of those points are rather nebulous. But, it does mean that I'm potentially interested, 'specially if they're Blue Chip.