[kodonnell]

Update: I received some sample chips in the mail today

13 Gram Pro Clay Casino Chips
12-Gram Las Vegas Poker Chips "NexGen"
11.5 Gram 4 Aces Poker Chips
10 Gram Nevada Jack Poker Chips
11.5 Gram High Roller Poker Chips
11.5 Gram Tri-Color Poker Chips (Suited and Triple Crown Designs)

And I have a set of "Costco" chips.

The 4 aces, high roller, and tri-color (both kinds) all sound VERY metallic. If I close my eyes and toss them, I would be hard pressed to tell you they were not completely metallic. They are also pretty slick. I do not like them at all.

The 12 gram Las Vegas "NexGen" chip is nice, but has a texture on it I really do not like. The same texture which is on the Nevada Jacks except the Las Vegas chip is just in the area stamped "las vegas nevada usa" where the Nevada Jack chip is completely covered with this texture. When I stacked 10 of them, it was surprisingly more slippery than expected. These chips have an insert but you really cannot tell.

The 13 gram casino chip is my favorite. The colors are nice...I like that the edge stripes are different colors. The chips can be stacked pretty high as they grip each other well. They do have the metal insert, but you really cannot tell, they do not sound any more metallic than the nevada jacks (which do not have an insert). There is a little nubbie from the injection mold on one side of each chip right at the edge of where you would put a sticker, but if you were to put stickers on, the nubbies come off easily by scratching it with your fingernail. It seems they would likely wear off during normal play also.

I have a 500 set of "Costco" chips. First off, when checking out the other chips I ran a magnet over them to see which ones have an insert. I assumed the Costco chips had an insert, considering $60 for 500 with a nice aluminum case. I was blown away to see the chip did not have an insert. The Costco chips sound almost identical to the "casino" chips, have the same "slate" feel and stack very high. They do not sound much different than the Nevada Jacks either. In looking at the Costco link above, it looks like they changed the colors in the 650 set. That would be great since in the set I have, there is a real problem distinguishing the blues from the whites when they are stacked. We get blues and whites mixed up in our stacks all the time. If the 650 set is the same material as the 500, but different colors, they have a real winner. And the price of $99 for 1000 with no shipping (if you have one close) is unbelievable. Does anyone have one of the 650 sets that they can comment on?

I think I am going to check out the 650 set from Costco and make a decision if I want to get the 650 set or the 13 gram "casino" chips. I really like the colors of the 13-grammers. I will keep you posted.

Kevin