[UW85]

Originally Posted by Sidepot

Done. We'll make a $25,000 denomination. What color/edge spot pattern would you like? That was easy, huh?

And thanks for your patience

-Stephan

This is going to sound terrible, but I THINK I ordered some NCV chips just for this very reason (so I could use them as $25,000). I'd LOVE to trade those in for the $25,000 chip. For that matter can you just take the NCV chip and make it the $25,000 chip? That would cause headaches for others I'm sure -- just trying to make it easy. I like bright colors -- don't care about edge spot progression. Could just be a solid color for me.

[mrticsay]

Originally Posted by Sidepot

My personal apologies to your Mrticsay. These excuses seem just as lame to me as they do to you, I'm sure. Unfortunately, you rely on our company, and our company relies on our manufacturers, and they rely on their suppliers. As my customer, I take full responsibility for any disappointment you have in our services. While we don't control the levels above us, we make choices and build in time cushions, and on this line we failed to plan correctly and deliver it in a timely manner.

That being said, this is a tough industry and the Protege's were a leap forward and that always takes more time. I hope you can appreciate that and the fact that this industry especially has very limited alternatives for production of the finest quality clay poker chips, and there's no other company in the world that could have brought these Protege's to market with the degree of flexibility that was necessary except for the manufacturer we use. So the alternative is to A) not produce them at all, or B) produce them, yet live with a lot of uncertainty and tolerate a lot of ambiguity. That's your options in this industry, and if you want good chips, you do what you can. We didn't cut any corners here, and we always tried to err on the side of cautiion. Our principal mistake was not allowing enough lead time on these, and should we do this again, we'll start the process more than 10 months ahead of time (but it's hard to predict at the outset that 10 months isn't enough time).

So I appoligize that the Protege's are late getting to market, but if the alternative is to not have them, I would still do this all over.

-Stephan

Stephan,

I appreciate the response and I also appreciate the "getting them right". Furthermore, I generally understand the challenges you have to bring these to markey.

Making my living as a project manager, I know that the challenge, and the success, is in managing all the parties involved (consumers, producers, suppliers, financiers, etc.) in a manner that everyone is ultimately comfortable with. Sometimes, we have to deliver messages people don't want to hear and sometimes we deliver messages we wish we didn't have to. The key is to avoid surprises, last minute misses and giving the sense that things are under control if they are not. I'd rather tell people the "ugly truth", than hope that things suddenly turn around.

I look forward to receiving these and also hope that the communication and management of this to the end is better.

Michael

[cigarherb]

I am glad you are keeping everyone up to date. I have been waiting like everyone else, and will continue to wait until they arrive. These are the chips I want, so enough said. Now to start working on you guys to give me the participant price of 79c for waiting patiently, since no one ever told me about the contest until after it was over. If only I had known I could have saved a $150. I blame everyone.

[UW85]

Originally Posted by cigarherb

...since no one ever told me about the contest until after it was over. I blame everyone.

Way to allow others to take your responsibility for you! Too funny.

[EmptyPocs]

Originally Posted by Sidepot

Done. We'll make a $25,000 denomination. What color/edge spot pattern would you like? That was easy, huh?

-Stephan

Well, that will take about 6 months of polls to decide here. How bout we leave it up to you , surprise us.

[EmptyPocs]

As for smaller denoms: I can not picture anyone buying these playing nickle/dime (use the 1/5/25 if you have to play nickle dime--no one will know but you ).
And I thought there was talk of plaques for the larger denoms?
The NV chip should be able to fill anything in between...

[JM]

Originally Posted by EmptyPocs

Well, that will take about 6 months of polls to decide here. How bout we leave it up to you , surprise us.

Or use one of the NCV chips that didn't make the cut!

[mac40k]

Well at this point I wasn't planning on seeing these before Christmas anyway, but I was still hoping to receive them before my first league game in January. Now even that seems questionable. Without a firm commitment on when the inserts will arrive at the manufacturers, you're just making an optimistic guess that they'll start shipping in January. The waiting is killing me, but there's nothing else to do but wait. Thanks for the update, but do keep us informed on the progress since the jonesing won't stop until the chips are in my hands!

[cigarherb]

Originally Posted by mac40k

Well at this point I wasn't planning on seeing these before Christmas anyway, but I was still hoping to receive them before my first league game in January. Now even that seems questionable. Without a firm commitment on when the inserts will arrive at the manufacturers, you're just making an optimistic guess that they'll start shipping in January. The waiting is killing me, but there's nothing else to do but wait. Thanks for the update, but do keep us informed on the progress since the jonesing won't stop until the chips are in my hands!

This is where I am at as well. I sold my other set of chips in November thinking these would be here in plenty of time for our new season starting early January. Not sure what I will do. I may have to get some plastic chips and paper cards.

[Seitz333]

Originally Posted by cigarherb

This is where I am at as well. I sold my other set of chips in November thinking these would be here in plenty of time for our new season starting early January. Not sure what I will do. I may have to get some plastic chips and paper cards.

I'm in the same boat as you, I sold all of my chips (over 4000) back in September, expecting these to be here in October (this was my mistake, I made this decision). I had planned my yearly "Chuck's Big Game" for the end of October. Well 3 weeks into October and no Proteges. Luckily my good buddy and teammate ddollevoet shipped me 1000 Pharaoh's to borrow for the weekend. Since then I have been putting off other games, like the game I was hoping to have this weekend when all my buddies are in town for the holidays. I also decided not to to buy any of the Paulson Top Hat chips or the Paulson Hot Stamps because I was sure the Proteges would be here...

I understand the delays Sidepot is having and know that they are out of his control, but it is still very disappointing...

Chuck