Opinions on Blue Chips

Goblin05 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 10:55 AM

Hi all noob here.

I tried the search function but did not find any specific information on this so...

I have a couple questions regarding a product I ran across:

http://www.apexpokerchips.com/pd_25_james.cfm

in the product description, it specifically says:

"Manufacturer Name: Blue Chip"

Does this mean this chip is not a Paulson Chip? What about the quality? It appears to otherwise be a full clay chip?

Are the Blue Chips essentially imitations of more popular/famous chips? The price isn't really that much less than the real thing.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Gob

panthershutch15 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:00 AM

That price is a rip off. .95 cents for blue chips is WAAAAAAY too much. Blue chip is not the same as Paulson either.

I might consider a small set of them for .40 cents each, but that is it.

As for the chips, they are much better than the cheap plastic chips, but they are at the bottom of the barrel as far as quality chips.

They are light, hard, and slippery, and the chips are always (almost) manufactured with strange and off-center inlays.

IF you are going to pay more than .90 cents per chip, you would by much better off buying Paulson, TR King, ASM (a little cheaper), or Chipco (if you like ceramic). The Samurai BC group buy looks promising also.

****Post on here before you order anything so you don't get ripped off!!!!

MeridianFC · #3 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:09 AM

I've found that the Blue Chips produced for others seem to be of a higher qulaity. See Nevada Jacks or the Mardi Gras.

panthershutch15 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:21 AM

That's true from what I have heard.

So, just don't buy those particular BC chips, especially for that price!! If you are going to spend almost $1 per chip check out the other manufacturers I posted, or a different BC design (which I still feel are overpriced).

Johnny5 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:25 AM

Welcome!

Check out the review on Blue Chip clays here: http://chiptalk.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9315

That will give you some background info on the subject. The "James Bond" chips have been produced in several iterations by both Paulson & Blue Chip. Here is a thread comparing the new Paulson 'home' version to the BC version:

http://chiptalk.net/forum/showthread...ght=inlay+bond

Some like BCs more than others, but the quality control issues on certain chips they make(the James Bonds seem to be the worst of them all), are widely acknowledged around here.

If weird shaped inlays don't bother you, go for it, but buy them from somewhere else (ie. $.79 at Spinettis). Be prepared for something like this though:

99%evil · #6 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:33 AM

I just sold my Martini Clubs and I think they are some of the nicest looking chips out there. There were probably 6 out of 500 with inlay issues, but only 1 with a really bad inlay. I loved the things, but I bought some Pharaohs and couldn't see keeping two sets. If I happen to fall into $500 that my wife doesn't spend I'd love to get 500-750 solid colored BC's to throw pvc/poly labels on. If they could do the suited mold that would be the best. Although tossing a few edge spots would be good for higher denoms, they do have some of the best colors for edgespots. The chips are a bit light, the NJ clays I have are a bit heavier than the Martini Clubs, don't know why, maybe the mold. The ultimate would be if Paulson did blanks in the JB mold, at a lower price of course, I can label JB's if I want, but at almost a buck a chip it's a little nutty, that and I'd be worried about the inlay showing through.

CaptLego · #7 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 11:59 AM

Welcome, Goblin

That is indeed a Blue Chip. They make lots of different designs of clay chips.
If you haven't already, you should read the poker chip reviews on this site.
Some reviews of Blue Chips:
Blue Chip Clay Chips
Modern Clays
Nevada Jacks Clay
Mardi Gras

After reading the reviews of the Blue Chips, read some of the reviews of other brands.

The chips you referenced are the Casino de Isthmus (aka James Bond) inlays on the "flame" mold. Make no mistake about it -- those are good chips. The thing is, for that kind of money you can do better. Personally, I'm not a fan of that inlay design, but others like it. If you like that inlay, you should check out the Paulson James Bonds. Most Blue Chip chips seem to have a problem with inlay roundness an centering. The flame mold seems to be among the worst. (The Modern Clays are probably the very worst.) I have about 16 samples of the chips you're looking at, and most are not too bad but a couple of the inlays are pretty gross.

The newer Blue Chip molds seem to do a bit better. I'm actually a fan of the Mardi Gras and Martini Club designs, which use a "suits" mold. Those inlays seem centered better and more round. Also, that mold is more forgiving of off-centered inlays.

Check out the Sammurai chips being designed in the Group Buys section. Those look promising, and you'll get a good price on them.

The current top-of-the-line for Blue Chip chips is the InPlay Clays. We're working on some reviews of those. In the meantime, you can search the forums for discussions on InPlay clays. Their price was recently reduced, but they're still pretty expensive. (Personally, I can still find a lot of chips I like better than those, for that price.)

But before you buy any of these chips, you should check out some other brands. ASMs, TRKing, Paulson deserve a look. Most folks here find those to be superior to the Blue Chips. Some of us here quite like the ceramics, too, so if you haven't decided on clay for sure, you should check out some Chipco or NJ Ceramic models too.

Best advice is: Buy Samples of all the chips you're interested in and compare them for yourself.

PocketRocket · #8 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 12:41 PM

First of all Welcome!

Blue Chip is the name of the manufacturer. You are correct, it is not a Paulson, which is the name of another company, now part of a multi-national concern called Gaming Partners International or GPI.

Blue Chip products are not an imitation of anything, they are an original design of the manufacturer. There are currently 4 companies in the U.S. that make compression molded chips. GPI, Atlantic Standard Molding, TR King, and Blue Chip. Originally the chips that you know as the Paulson TH&C mold were made for Christy & Jones (and then renamed Paul-Son when the company was sold ) by the Burt Company (their equipment is now part of ASM). The Blue Chip company is currently operated by descendants of Paul Endy Jr. who bought the Christy and Jones company and renamed it Paul-Son. The TR King Company was founded by Paul Endy Sr. (father of you-know-who

.) In any case, without going into a long prolonged history lesson, the Blue Chip products are the 'real thing' just as are compression molded chips from TR King, Paulson, or ASM.

And before I forget ...

, the reason I was responding to your posting ... take a look at http://www.cardroomsupply.com/cldecpoch.html for some pretty attractive pricing on another Blue Chip product.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goblin05

Hi all noob here.

"Manufacturer Name: Blue Chip"

Does this mean this chip is not a Paulson Chip? What about the quality? It appears to otherwise be a full clay chip?

Are the Blue Chips essentially imitations of more popular/famous chips? The price isn't really that much less than the real thing.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Gob

dolomite128 · #9 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 01:01 PM

I've had a couple sets of Blue Chip chips and have always thought they were of pretty decent quality. Probably doesn't deserve most of the bashing they receive on this chip board.

It's true that their label application blows but the overall quality of the chips are pretty good. For the price, there is quite a bit of competition so if the labels "non-roundess" bothers you (it gets on your nerves eventually) than I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

Having said this, those Club Desperados are a great value at .50 apiece. Wonder if you could throw a label down over theirs? It'd be worth a shot I suppose. You'd be hard pressed to find a better "value" on a compressed clay chip outside of this particular deal or blanks at ASM/pokerchips.com

dolomite

PocketRocket · #10 (**permalink**) 10-05-2005, 01:10 PM

That's exactly what I was thinking. I have no desire to purchase Blue Chips with inlays, but I do like the Blue Chip chips best for labels. At 50¢ a pop, it might be cheaper to get those and throw labels over the inlays instead of buying blanks. And since they already have an inlay, one could take their sweet time about working on the labels and getting them applied to the chips

Quote:

Originally Posted by dolomite128

Having said this, those Club Desperados are a great value at .50 apiece. Wonder if you could throw a label down over theirs? It'd be worth a shot I suppose. You'd be hard pressed to find a better "value" on a compressed clay chip outside of this particular deal or blanks at ASM/pokerchips.com

dolomite