Choosing a "clay" gaming chip

[Java Lizard]

If a handful of you can assist me in my dillema it will be very much appreciated. I will apologize up front for this thread being not straight forward and littered with numerous questions. Hopefully everyones opinions, ideas, and pictures attached to this thread help more than just myself with "clay" chip decisions. Thank you all in advance.

I very much enjoy a great home poker game. I have several small groups that I play with on a regular basis and from time to time have played in some small home tournaments. I however, have never hosted a game at my house due in part to my lack of any gaming chips.

My friends all have a hodge podge of chips. Anything from plastic, to injection molded with slugs in them, to the Nex-Gen chips. Some of the guys have the pre-printed faux casino marings on them, while others have hot stamps or blank chips. Various denominations, an array of colors, and chip counts from 650 - 1500.

Ive been doing a lot of on-line searching and have come to one conclusion. I want the best feeling, best sounding, best looking chips I can get for my dollar. With that being said the most obvious question is; what will I pay for a chip? I would like to have a collection of approximatley 1500 chips and am willing to spend as much in dollars for those chips. So, about a buck a chip. I want what is commonly reffered to as a "clay" or "clay composite" gaming chip with edge spotting. I want the chips to have a close weight and feel to what is standard in a casino. I also would really like to have a custom inlay in the chips if possible.

I've looked at homepokerchips.com, pokerchips.com (ASM), chipco.com, buypokerchips.com (modern clay), and several sites that have paulson home chips and James Bond chips, as well as blue chips and TRKings. I've even looked at Matsui chips.

So what do I ultimatley want? If I could find a Paulson chip with edge spotting and a custom inlay I would be a very happy man. But since I don't have the cash to pay for chips in the tens of thousands, that is not an option. I have read several reviews on different "clays" and many of them are very close. One which seems to stand out is the ASM chips from pokerchips.com. Please lend me some assistance and opinions.

Also, I have played in little five dollar home games and small tournaments with a one hundred dollar buy in. I have seen chips split up according to real denominations but have primarily seen chips split up in fantasy denominations, (Example: 50 bucks may get you 1500 in chips). I could see having five guys over for a five or ten dollar game, and also see myself holding a 24 man tournament. With 1500 chips, what is the best split up for denominations? Should I start at 1 and work up to 5000, or start at .25 or .50 and only go up to 500? I'm looking to have a very versatile collection and would ultimatley like to have each denomination represented with their own customized inlay.

One last question about oiling. Whatever chips I end up with, due in large part to responses from this thread, should I or should I not oil them. I understand mineral oil is the choice and it should be used very sparingly. I have seen pictures where it brings out the color of chip vibrantly. But, does the mineral oil have any adverse affects on the chips? After years of use does the oil weaken the chips?

Thank you all for your time and patience in reading my ramblings. I am looking forward to reading your opinions. Also, feel free to post pictures of your chips. Visuals will really help in the decision process.