[BigKyle]

I just wanted to share my thoughts on these chips and the process of cleaning them. Originally I thought, wow, those don't look too bad after some cleaning. So I bought a couple stacks (of 20).

I figured out the following things about cleaning these hotstamps off. They worked better when I used a thinner, whispier cotton ball. I take the cotton ball, dip it in non-acetone nail polish remover, then dab it on each of about six chips, one after another. While it sits there on the chips it begins to break up the hotstamp (from Jim's website) and the black stamp underneath (from the gaming commission). Then I wipe them off one by one in that group of six or so, as the time just sitting on the chip makes them loosen up and wipe away easier.

The white chips take longer to clean because the goo runs off onto the clay a bit. The red chips, with their giant-sized inlays, are much easier to clean. I will have to go back and work on the rolling edges of the chips a little because they have some noticeable goo runoff, especially the whites.

All tolled now, I have 420 white $1 chips and 370 red $5 chips. This will be a great setup for $1/$2 NL games. I have 300 whites left to clean.

The best part about these things? First, Jim from thechiproom.com is great to deal with. He was totally helpful and totally accommodating. I paid for the bulk of these on a tuesday and got them at my house on a friday.

Second, the price: about .50 a chip! This sure beats the price on other Paulsons and Trademarks and things of that nature.

Here are what I have cleaned so far. I did these here in about an hour and a half this afternoon, with help from my 12 year old sister.




There are some cracks on the $1 chips. In the batch I have, I would estimate 1 of every 8 has a noticeable crack, and that 1 out of every 50 has a crack that makes me say, "that's a bad one." Most of the chips are not even noticeably damaged.

I would like to get some matching ASM horseheads with .25 and a few $25 denominations, mainly because I don't play any games with a .50 chip needed. It's either .25/.50 social games or $1/$2.

So for .50 each and a little bit of work, I got new Paulsons with exceptional feel, sound, edgespots, and cool inlays, all with great service from Jim. All in all a pretty good deal I think!

[Cin0s3]

Looking great Kyle, great chips for the price no doubt. I bought 600 of them a while back for a game that I play at a friends house every 3 weeks and I cleaned the hell out of them (only the $5's and $25's the 50¢ & $1's were new) for about a week. I brought them over to this friends house and said here is a replacement for your dice chips, the first night we played with them everyone wanted to go back to the dice chips???? After about 4-5 mths now I think everyone is starting to catch on and seeing how much better these actually are.

[BigKyle]

That's good to hear that they've been fine for 5 months. Makes me think they will stay in fine shape.

Cleaned the final 300 whites after dinner this evening and am all finished. Added pictures of all 790 chips together. Those are 80 stacks in the picture and I have no doubt I could have gone up to 200 or so. Truly awesome chips.

[suited67]

Kyle,
That's a heck of a nice set for a super price. And with a little elbow grease you have a set others will truly appreciate. That's quality paulsons for ya awesome!

[Slagar]

Has anyone tried cleaning the gaming commission's stamp off of the tournament chips that Jim has for sale? As in the ones that have either an A or B hotstamp on both sides and the gaming commission's stamp on one side?

Would cleaning the gaming commission's stamp off take the house stamp off too? If the house stamp came off too, would both sides come off easily?

[CWaters425]

yes, it will take off the "original" stamp from the chips.

[CWaters425]

Great work Kyle. I myself have cleaned over 500 of these and have another 200 on the way. I haven't got my white chips yet, but the few samples I have, i already cleaned, but they still look "dirty" from the black stamp that was on them. how did you go about getting them looking super white?

[Slagar]

Good to know before taking the plunge on getting those, thanks.

[BigKyle]

Originally Posted by CWaters425

Great work Kyle. I myself have cleaned over 500 of these and have another 200 on the way. I haven't got my white chips yet, but the few samples I have, i already cleaned, but they still look "dirty" from the black stamp that was on them. how did you go about getting them looking super white?

At first, when I cleaned the stamp, the goo would run onto the white part of the chip. I would wipe the stamp off of my 6-8 chips I was working on at each time, then I would use a clean cotton ball to wipe off the entire thing. I found that a thinner, cheaper cotton ball actually worked better than the firmer more expensive kind. The cheap ones seemed to soak up some of the goo and were able to maintain a bit of the chip's brightness and finish. The chips still look a bit dirty, I may clean or oil them.

[Guma]

Nice job on cleaning the chips up! I only got a few of each chip, but after seeing yours I am kind of wishing I had ordered enough to make a cash game set.