[beekeeper]

I've only been a chiptalker for less than a year, but in that time, I've seen a succession of gorgeous fantasy chips offered to members. It seems like each new group buy outdoes the previous buys. The new Protege chips are amazing. It's hard for me to imagine how any chip set could top them, but I know in a month or so, I'll think that again.

For those of you who have been around longer than I, what do you think of all the choices available to fantasy chip buyers? How do you think future choices will compare to current choices?

If you had to commit yourself to one or two sets, how do you choose?

[panthershutch15]

The ones I can think of that are newer are:

Samurai's
Pharaoh's
American Beauty's
Protege's
2005 James Bond's
Various Blue Chip designs
WSOP replica's
Bellagio Replica's
TR King various GB's
ASM Custom GB's (The GB's aren't really a home line but I am counting them)
TR King Deadwood's
The newer Bud Jones GB
Inplay Clays


Out of those, I owned the Paulson 2005 JB's and the Pharaoh's...Those are long gone and I now own my custom ASM Hill Valley chips and I have Bellagio's on the way (I've been craving ceramics).

The Protege chips are amazing. I doubt there will be a better chip than that for a long time. For me, I am set with my custom ASM's and the Bellagio's for now as I really need to limit my spending. I see group buys not being as frequent in the coming years as a LOT has already been done. I don't think a chip will top the Protege's for awhile, but all of the above options I listed are choices you cannot go wrong with (except the various blue chip co. lines). But the options with ASM customs rank right up with the Protege chips in my book because they can do almost everything that the Protege chips can (besides shaped inlays), and the inlays are fully custom.

If I had absolutely no chips right now and was looking to choose 2 of those sets and had a grand or two to blow, I would probably get a set of Protege's and my custom ASM's (I would try to squeeze in one of the new budget ceramics, though).

[jamby]

Have you checked out some of the fakes and fantasy chips on this page?

http://www.ccgtcc.com/fakes.html

There are some beautiful chips out there other than just those that CT group buys are involved in. The Paulson NOP and Chipco Island Theme chipsets are two of my favorites.

-jamby




edit to add that pics above courtesy of this web site:
http://www.ccgtcc.com/fakes.html

[JM]

Someone had some of those NOP chips here last year wondering if anyone knew anything about the NOP.

[jamby]

They're an intriguing chipset.

Some have the plain/smooth mold. Some have shaped inlays. Interesting choice and progression of inserts. Odd denoms.

I've got the big blue 100k chip with 8 inserts. It's a great card guard. Really heavy.

-jamby

Originally Posted by JM

Someone had some of those NOP chips here last year wondering if anyone knew anything about the NOP.

[BigKyle]

As far as the 'evolution' of fantasy chips, I would say that the next steps are obviously the best possible feel, sound, and texture, but also some other steps. These include

true shaped inlays
custom molds (The Desert Palms set nails this one)
textured inlays (Some have them, not all)
more complex edgespot patterns
a full 10-gram weight

These are just what I would like to see encompassed on one chip collection. Several have bits and pieces, but not all of them.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by beekeeper

I've only been a chiptalker for less than a year, but in that time, I've seen a succession of gorgeous fantasy chips offered to members. It seems like each new group buy outdoes the previous buys. The new Protege chips are amazing. It's hard for me to imagine how any chip set could top them, but I know in a month or so, I'll think that again.

For those of you who have been around longer than I, what do you think of all the choices available to fantasy chip buyers? How do you think future choices will compare to current choices?

If you had to commit yourself to one or two sets, how do you choose?

Interesting topic.

The current trend seems to be more old school in nature. This site was started to get a Paulson chip. Next and in parallel, there was a big demand for custom labels with a lot of custom Chipco sets designed. Individual ASM orders seemed to take off. The American Beauties came to be. Then more and more custom ASM designs with the demand for different edge spots. TR Kings grew in popularity. More muted colors, demand for 10g chips, true die cut inserts and solid hot stamped chips seem to be next /current wave. Chip collectors are posting here more and I think their impressive collections showing the old vegas chips have increased that demand for the classic looks.

Edit - below was added

WSOP replicas are popular and almost anything still goes for ceramics, but the clay lines are the ones that have become more traditional, beginning with the Samurai Place.

To answer the 2nd part - how do you limit yourself? Many people (including myself) have multiple sets. Right now I have 2. A tournament set of American Beauties - 4 colors but have only ever used 3 in our tourneys. A cash set of denomination labeled nexgens. Researching those and how to do my own labels led me to this site. I want to replace those with a denominated clay set. Protege may be it - but I can't decide. I would love to have a denominated hotstamped set of $0.25, $1, $5 and $20. To satisfy the need to have more chips - that's why God created sample sets.

[ThorCavalier]

The GB that I am most interested to see the results of is the Matsui decal chip. That is the first really different option that I've seen in the last 2 years. As for the clay home chip, I think it will be a while before the Proteges are challenged. To be fair though I thought the same thing about the Samurais until the Proteges came along, so who knows. For my money though, the only way to truly step up from any of the great fantasy chips currently offered is to get a custom set. There is something about having something totally unique of your design that can't be beat.

[beekeeper]

Jamby, those are gorgeous chips, and you're right, I had not seen them before.

Matthew mentions the American Beauties and the Samuri Palace. As my interest in chips grows, these are two of the chips that I find increasingly interesting.

When I see the designs ordinary folk do on this site, I'm really impressed.

[Magus 23]

Originally Posted by beekeeper

When I see the designs ordinary folk do on this site, I'm really impressed.

I guess the thing to remember is that everyone is ordinary folk at heart. It's just that the tools of the trade (both design-wise and production-wise) have made things available to a larger number of people. Sure, that means you get a lot more garbage, but people who have the talent but wouldn't have a chance to produce something because of tool limitations now have that ability.

Speaking as a (mostly former) designer, it means that the pros have to keep on their toes. There's a lot of worry about clients thinking they can just do things themselves (and that happens a lot), but in the long run, talent wins out. Hell, I'm a video producer now, and I never would have been able to make the transition if it weren't for the advent of digital video. And I've got tons of clients who think they can do eveything themselves -- I just let my work speak for itself, and in the end (when the client's got hours of unusable footage and an editing job that looks like it was slapped together by monkeys), it usually does.

Now, as a chip newbie myself, I can't speak to the whole history issue. But one thing I liked about the Protégé line was a real desire to go with a distinct "retro" look with the shaped inlays. It's a risk, to be sure, but I think it'll really give these chips a specific niche. In a sense, I can see how they may be the "chips to beat" going forward, but my (admittedly amateur) opinion is that there'll be plenty of room for other lines that fill other niches.

That said, I think the Protégés are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I just may have a moderately biased opinion...