I've been searching for some nice, but not too expensive chip cases for the ASMs I am buying my husband. Thus far I haven't made a purchase, but thought I'd share what I learned this weekend. Maybe not a huge suprise to you experts out there, but here goes.
I am looking for something a little more asthetically pleasing than the typical aluminum cases or the task force case. (Which, on a side note, I actually own already and contains my equipment for my other hobby, glassblowing. I like it a lot.) I am hoping for a wood or leather case. The premium cases on PC.com's website look nice, but seem pricey, so I've been looking around. I am buying 1000 chips, and I am looking for 2x500 travel cases.
I saw a sample of the $30 oak case that is commonly found on a lot of websites (e.g.
http://www.5stardeal.com/expand.asp?pid=7243&subcat=102) . It seemed a little inexpensive (and therefor possibly cheap) so I wanted to see it first. I went down to a local shop and took a look at it. I immediatly ruled it out. The hinges looked like they would not last very long at all - they were made of a very thin metal sheet. The latches seemed okay, but after seeing the hinges I didn't pay much attention to them. The case was very light, and not very substantial. The young man at the store told me that he would not recommend the case at all. He told me a customer ordered 10, and when they came in only two were "perfect" - the rest either had scratches or the hinges were ALREADY broken, and that they (at the store) had to repair them by hand before supplying them to the customer.
I really liked the idea of the little removable trays, but the quality was too poor to justify a purchase.
The other case I looked at is also commonly found online, but more often in 300 than 500. It was a 300 version that they had at the store. (A picture:
http://www.5stardeal.com/expand.asp?pid=8889&subcat=102) This case seemed much sturdier - the hinges seemed in very sturdy and the latches, while a little sticky (presumably because it was new) were much heavier than what is normally seen on most aluminum cases. I didn't really like the appearance though. The vinyl is glued on to what is some kind of pressboard. At the corners, there were some small gaps in the vinyl where I could see the pressboard underneath (for this price, I don't really expect perfection, just wanted to note why I knew what the material was). The fact that the vinyl was glued on worried me a bit, I don't know what the durability would be like. The handle also seemed pretty secure. The case was very heavy, probably because of teh wooden tray insert. After filling it with chips, it would certainly be "lugged" around instead of carried. The tray itself seemed okay, although on the tops of the edges you could see a bit of white where the tray wasn't stained well. Also, the vinyl looked, well, like vinyl. Not a great faux leather. While I think the hinges, latches, and handle is pretty durable on this case, I decided it wasn't very asthetically pleasing, and was concerned about the vinyl peeling off at some point. Decided to pass and (likely) spend more money on a nicer case.
I haven't yet seen the leather cases reviewed on this site, I plan on checking them out. If any one has bought a travel case from PC.com along with their order, I would be happy to hear any comments.
I have a friend who convereted a wooden artist's box into a 300 chip case himself - it seems to work nicely but after spending some time at an art supply store couldn't find one large enought to accomodate 500 chips. I may look around to see if I can find some other unconventional idea such as this.
I'm not getting the chips until January. I'll keep you posted on my further shopping adventures.
Too bad that didn't work out. Have you considered using chip racks and then some sort of a container to hold the chip racks as an alternative solution? That way, your husband also has the option of saving his back and not having to carry all of them if he doesn't need to. 
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