My Process: custom labels for Nexgen chips

[ky70]

I thought I would create a topic talking about my personal experience with getting custom chip labels for my Nexgen chips. I know that I’ve searched every poker forum I could think of for this type of info before I got started and think this thread will be helpful to some.

The Chips: I knew I wanted to do custom labels for Nexgen chips (based on the positive opinions about these chips, and the edge spots, and the recessed center which is ready made for 1” label). I just bought 500 Nexgen’s (bought Friday and received Tuesday) and I initially did not like the feel of them but I’m really starting to like these chips the more I "play" with them. They’re starting to feel better and better and they definitely look good sliding across the felt (sidebar: When I bet/call, I like to throw my chips out a variety of ways to give the appearance that I’ve played a lot of live poker).

The Labels: After stumbling upon the whole custom label market, my first thought was to do it myself. I saw plenty of people had done their on labels but the more I researched it the more of found little issues (what type of printer to use, what type of paper to use, what to set the margins at, what program to use for the design) that my be think I should let a pro do it. So I got in contact with 2 main custom label makers that the masses seem to use, Jason (jasone@verizon.net goes by cin0s3 on Ebay) and Brent of Lynbark (lynbark@nc.rr.com goes by lynbark on Ebay). Let me say that both guys were extremely responsive and their customer service was great. I selected them because they allowed me to come up with idea and then they designed a label based on my specific requests. They would e-mail me a visual sample (the quick turnaround was amazing from both, but especially from Jason) and if I wanted alterations, they made the changes quickly and e-mailed the amended custom label. I decided to use both guys at the end because I did not know which design would look best in person. I dealt with both guys directly (not using Ebay) and the cost from each guy was about $36 (including shipping) for 1000 labels. If you select one of their existing designs, the price is cheaper (I believe). After all the changes to the label designs, I ordered from Jason this past Friday morning and from Brent this past Saturday morning and received their labels on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. I liked both labels but the label from Lynbark looked better to my eyes. I asked them both for the same basic design, butt I did ask for specific things for one that I didn’t ask for another (AK of spades on the labels from Jason didn’t look like it really belonged – but that’s my fault). The text on Lynbark’s labels were also more consistent, but I would not hesitate to use Jason again as I believe he could design just as good a label as Lynbark.

The Application: I searched every craft store I could find in search of that Krylon preserve it stuff to apply on the labels, but NO ONE seemed to have it. I’m too excited to put off applying the labels until I can hunt this down (and I only seem to find it online) so I sit down and prepare myself to apply the Lynbark labels. I already had my poker table up in the basement so I plunk down at about 9pm and begin to start labeling. I have 6 different colored Nexgen chips and six different label colors that correspond. I ended up getting about 100 chips done (2 different colors) in about 1.5 hours. The application is simple enough but I am being very careful about applying the labels, as I want them to look professionally done. I remember a thread where someone said it took them 2 hours to apply labels on 500 chips and this person either is great at applying labels or was not concerned with the small details (I have the label on both sides in the same position and the top of label on every chip is aligned below an edge spot).

The Conclusion: I’m extremely happy with how my chips look and the investment was well worth it. I’ll post pics when I’m done and my apologies for the long thread.

FYI, this is being posted in other poker forums also