How many "extra" chips should you order?

[psy]

For lost damaged or defect chips....

Say this chip set isn't ever available in the retail market... What percentage of chips do you need in addition to your set as spares?

Say i get 1000 chips... Is it wise to get another 100 for extras? Is that too many ?

Will extras be given automatically to compensate for any natural factory defected ones? I heard of a clay chip company giving 10 percent more on top of your order in case of defects or damage.

[Kalimba]

Originally Posted by psy

For lost damaged or defect chips....

Say this chip set isn't ever available in the retail market... What percentage of chips do you need in addition to your set as spares?

Say i get 1000 chips... Is it wise to get another 100 for extras? Is that too many ?

Will extras be given automatically to compensate for any natural factory defected ones? I heard of a clay chip company giving 10 percent more on top of your order in case of defects or damage.

Hey, that's a good question. I was just sitting here thinking if I needed to order "extras" and, if so, how many. I wouldn't expect an automatic extra 10% (or 5% -- or whatever), but I do expect that if I order 500 chips, I should receive 500 undamaged chips.

Assuming it's up to the individual to order extras, what is the minimum multiple that I can order for any chip (e.g. can I order quantity 52 of one chip)?

[CaptLego]

I ordered 5 or 10 extras for each denom of the Chipco Egyptians. I guess I'm glad I did, but the more I think about it, it seems kinda silly.

The original thinking went something like:
"I've got a case or rack that holds X chips. If I buy X chips and subsequently lose one, then the set will seem incomplete. Also, it seems bad to have an rack that isn't exactly full."

So I ordered extras. Now I have the extras, and of course (by design) they don't fit in the case with the rest of the chips. Otherwise, they wouldn't be "extras", would they? So the extras have to go into some other case, separate from the "full" case. And of course, the extras don't fill that case, so I have a case with incomplete chips.

And when you come right down to it, those "extras" aren't really extra anyhow. If a particular game scenario could use a couple more chips than fit in the full case, why not put the "extras" into play? They are, after all, perfectly good chips. They're just orphaned from the "primary" case. I have to go dig them out of the "overflow" case.

Bottom line:
Just buy lots of chips and a case big enough to hold them all.
If you plan to support, for example, a 10 person tourney with each person getting, say 20 red chips as part of their starting stack, then you should probably buy more than 10*20 red chips. This kind of "extras" makes sense. Just buy 250 red chips, and you'll have plenty.

[TripKings]

My thoughts are that if I buy a 300, 500, or 1000 chip set and some sort of a case to match.... I want it to be full and contain at least the number of chips that I need. I agree with Lego that if I "need" 450 various chips then I should just buy 500 chips and a case to match it. The problem I have then is I have a complete set of 500 and if one or more gets lost, damaged, destroyed or stolen - I then would have an "incomplete" feeling(even thought I don't need them). On top of that you wouldn't have 500 chips, of differnt denoms or colors, that fit into the case easily/quickly - ie in their own complete rows(my current set used to be like this and it sucked to reload it after every time I used them - ie 80, 80, 125, 130, 95).

I know not everyone is that way about things, but I am and I will order a few of each as "spares". I think that usually you have to buy custom chips in quantities of 25 - so if I buy 1000 chips in six colors for my complete set(and a case to match) - I would buy something like: 105 blue, 204 white, 204, red, 204 green, 204 black, and 104 purple = 1025. I'd just leave the "spare 25" on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere and if they are ever needed I'll always have my full case = complete 1000 chip set.

My current 500 chip set has had many(maybe 30) damaged chips that needed to be "replaced"(mostly because they were cheaply made) - I didn't need to have spares up front because they are a common chip that I can still get from the original retailer(Gambler's General Store in Vegas). But with a custom ship set - you'd need to get these chips up front if I want guarantee they available anytime in the future.

I think CaptLego touched on this in his post..... it just boils down to how silly or anal you are about this type of thing.

[CaptLego]

I confess that I'm pretty silly/anal about these things.

When I buy chips, I buy the case first. Then figure out how many chips will fit in it, then order that many chips + some "extras" so I'll be able to keep the case full after some chips are damanged or lost.

If my home theater preamp has unused inputs, I feel the urge to go buy something to hook up to it.
ops:

So the best practical advice I can come up with for people like me is:
1) Buy a few more chips than the minimum required for the types of games you want to support.
2) Then either:
a) buy a case that won't hold them all. That way you'll have plenty of "extras" to keep that case full. or,
b) buy a case that holds most of them, but has some extra space (like room for cards). Get a box or envelope, put the "extra" chips in there, and store them in the space for cards. That way, all the rows will be full, and who's to say how many chips belong in the box or envelope? The nice thing about this approach is that all the chips of the set are still together, and none will be obviously missing.

[chipper57AA]

When I bought a set of 650 NexGen's I was also worried about losing some and since my case had a slot that would fit another 32 chips I ordered an extra 32 assorted colors just in case. But as someone already said, I tend to use those extra chips anyway.

If you're ordering a nice custom set where getting extras at a later date would be near impossible to get then ya, why not get more and stash em away for the possibility of not having a full set. Chances are though you'll be using all of them.

Last week I had a poker night and seemed to have lost 1 chip. Five days later I found a chip hidden behind a curtain. So ya, you'll eventually lose some or your dog will chew one up - so if a full set matters - get a few more.

[MACKERS33]

75

[Wylecoyo]

I ordered 25 extras of each of my denominations, for a total or 100 extra chips. This made things very simple for me as they all fit in their own chip box, which I can put away on my shelf for a rainy day. When I received my chips I looked them all over to ensure they were in good shape and would not be less than optimal for play. Now all I do is change out my 25 spares before each game, that way if I ever need to incorporate some of the spares or, god forbid, actually need to replace a missing or broken chip, the spare will not stand out against the other chips because it will have been broken in already.

This system works for me, but, then again, I am super anal-retentive.

[PocketRocket]

I have 10% extra of each chip set aside separately for replacements if they get broken or lost. If a chip has relatively minor damage (small nick), I leave it in the set to give it a little character.