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Second I have the #1003 and #1006 chips from thepokerchipcompany.com. The first thing you notice of course, is the standard 10.5g weight compared to the hefty 13g "Casino" chips. Although these are pure clay with no insert, they actually feel more like plastic then anything else, they are very hard and sound a bit...cheap when clinking them around. The quality of the chip however is much better then the "Casino" chip. You can immediately tell the difference in the edge spots and chip itself that this is a higher quality chip. The edges are very sharp, in direct contrast to the 13g chips. Overall though, like the 13g chips, I really just do not like them. These are the most expensive chips I have here.
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First, thanks for posting as I too am in the market for a nice set of chips. Thought I'd add my 2¢ here. I have to disagree with your eval of the #1003 & #1006 as I don't think they're hard at all and I really like the weight, feel and sound of them. They are much softer than the A-mould & roman chips samples I have form pokerchips.com, the modern clays from buypokerchips.com, and the TR Kings sample from Apache. I think they're are soft possibly too soft... a few drops in the car port & on the kitchen tile have sizeable nicks in the chips. The nicks wear in okay but this adds to my reservations for longtime wear & use. My other hesitancy is mainly for the looks of the chip... only white edge spots is kind of boring and dirty's up pretty quickly (at least it did on my samples after only two weeks) such that I tried cleaning with a little soap/water (very little) and the chips are now very faded and the hot stamp is wearing off. If it wasn't for the looks of the sample chips after two weeks these might be my choice as I really like the weight, feel & sound... they're quality chips but even from some pics on their website you can get a flavor for how they might fade over time (see
possible faded black chip ... could be dust/powder but looks like the fading I mentioned). I have samples of the 13.5g chips from buypokerchips.com and I think they're are better than the 11.5g's and would definitely consider these if cost was my biggest motivator.
My choice right now is leaning to custom chipco style... really like the NJ's & Modern Clays except for the design so I figure if I'm going to spend the money might as well up the cost for the personalization/nostalgia factor. Started my chip design and the first draft has the SWMBO excited... wahoo! I'm going to contact homepokerchips.com soon to get a better quote but still refining my design... We'll see what kind of damper the cost does for my excitement.
Sorry for the long ramblin's... hoped they helped someone,
Fins