I was all excited to get a bunch of 'well used' casino Paulson chips. I picked them up for what I thought was a good price figuring I could quickly clean them up. They were to fill a gap where I was sorta thin on my other Paulsons so I could pull them out when I needed more chips for additional buy ins or having more folks around. Again, the price was right and the extra 100 chips would be a help.
They arrived and were very used, but in overall sound condition, other than the filth. The filth was impressive. The white on the inlay looked like a gray flannel color on the cleanest of the chips, charcoal on the worst. And then there was what I call, the toe jam. This was some grayish 'gum' type substance that was not sticky, but hardened onto the chips in various spots. Eons of shuffling and stacking had left this material embedded, hardened, and smoothed into the chips... and it did not want to leave.
Showing no fear, I grabbed 10 of the 100 chips and ran to the sink, Magic Eraser in hand... This had mixed results. While the garden variety filth was soon vanquished, the toe jam laughed at me. Still bold, I grabbed the old tooth brush and engaged. After a fevered battle, the jam was mostly gone and my hand were cramped. I eventually settled into something of a pattern, but it still ended up taking about 2 min or so per chip.
As I battled the goo, I realized it was not going to be quick work to polish up 100 chips. I thought of my options...quickly marry and impregnate my girlfriend so I could have a kid who I could make clean the chips, or try to sell 'it's therapy!' to my co-workers and make my clients clean them (I'm a psychiatric social worker). I debated the pros and cons of marrage VS malpractice as my hands pruned and cramped into hidious tallons. I eventually came to the conclusion that neither plan was actually viable. (Kids would take too long and cost to much, and visions of headlines with the words "The Socialworker's Sweatshop!" seemed unappealing.)
So I'm left with scrubbing. With each chip I scrub, the real price to me of these chips goes up and up. Hell, by the time I'm finished, these are gonna be the most expensive chips I own
