This is my first post on any forum anywhere....I hope the image works.
I decided to try my own "custom" labels after reading about it all over the web for the past few weeks / months.
We typically play $.50/$1 blinds no limit hold-em and with 5-8 guys we can get $300-500+ in play over the course of the night. We generally buy-in at $20 increments, which is why I went with a white $20 chip instead of the more customary green $25. The break down of my new set is 100 Yellow ($50), 200 Blue ($200), 80 Red ($400) and 20 White ($400) for a total of $1050. I have an extra 20 red chips. For traveling, I will leave the yellow home and just take 300 chips in my old 11.5g case and play $1/$1.
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http://img199.exs.cx/gal.php?g=4customchipscopy5ou.jpg
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http://img199.exs.cx/gal.php?g=4customchipscopy5ou.jpg
On the design - my house number is 91, probably could have been a little more creative with the name. I tried to keep it to one style of chip, but just didn't like 8000 series white or blue chips or the 8002 yellow chip with the different edge spot colors, and I already had 100 of the red 8000 series from a previous e-bay auction. I really liked the blue and white 8002s, and since you can buy a single chip of any style from 5stardeal I got what I wanted.
The investment:
100 glossy white laser labels (data-labels.com) $39.95 plus $7.79 shipping (split with a co-worker). I used 24 sheets and have 26 left over. My cost = $23.87
100 yellow 8000s @ $0.20 each, 200 blue and 20 white NEXGEN 8002s @ $0.22 each, 4 10-5030 racks @$1.42 each (all from 5stardeal.com) plus $11.41 shipping. Could have purchased a 300 or 500 set of the 8000s for ~$60 or ~$105 in a case, but I got what I wanted color wise. My cost = $85.09
Previously purchased 100 red 8000 series chips from 5stardeal. The winning bid was $2.25 with shipping of $9.95 (12.2 cents each - they stopped that e-bay offering a while ago). My cost = $12.20
24 black and white laser prints at Kinkos @ $0.50 each. My cost = $12.00
I had a licensed Photoshop limited version which I got free somewhere and I used the worldlabel.com free 15 day use software for printing.
My total set up cost was $133.36 for 420 custom chips or 31.7 cents each with enough labels left over to revise them in the future. Not including my research, design, printing and label applying time.
On the printing - it was hard to get the design centered, the top few rows seemed to print in the center, but further down the page, the print seemed to be more to the top of the label. I ran 2 more pages of each print to use just the upper rows. In my test prints on an inkjet printer, if I had a colored background, the bottom rows would have a sliver of unprinted area in the bottom of the label. I'm guessing the commercial guys who do this all the time have the trial and error experience and better software to get their efforts perfect.
I also have a 1150 11.5 gram plastic "suit" chips, the initial set of 300 was a christmas gift from my wife and very expensive compared to today's prices. The others were bought off e-bay for cheap. Those are our tournament chips, and the NEXGENs will be used for the cash game.
In my opinion the NEXGENs have a much better feel / sound and stack / shuffle better than the 11.5 gram plastic chips. I know they're no Paulson clay or even Chipco quality, but they are great improvement over the metal slug chips.
Thanks,
Matthew
