Some questions about where to buy 11.5g plastic chips

[nobodyimportant]

Hi, I've been looking at 11.5g chips recently and was contemplating on buying them. In advance, forgive me if I ask stupid questions, I am a newbie at buying things online, and especially a newbie at searching for poker chips. I'm looking for a dice stripe, or even just stripes, I don't really care for the dice dots. The stripes look cool though [especially when they're stacked up], and I'm assuming dice stripe was one of the older designs, so there's just about every color in the rainbow. I was thinking to initially get either 300 chips [chips alone in R/G/B/Bl/W], and buy some pink/purples later. or just get 500 in a chip set, and probably not buy the pink/purple chips.

[Btw I just found this forum, and read most of the threads]
I've been searching for chips for about a week now [online] and pretty much where I'm going to buy my chips is going to be from one of these three sources

Pokerchipmart offers the most flexibility on color selection, and how much you can buy at a time. Their S&H seems about right.

eBay has cheap prices for chip sets, but sometimes the S&H is a ripoff and kind of irritates me that I got the chip set for "cheap" but have to pay huge S&H which basically makes the chips equivalent or even overpriced to other chip sites.

But recently I've found this one site, one that I don't know anything about but, so far it's the cheapest one out there, 79.99 for a set [500 chips, comes with the "works" the aluminum case which I've heard breaks, two casino decks and 5 dice], and 20.00 for shipping and handling. [pokerchipsonline.net] The problem is, it isn't ebay, and I have no idea if it's reputable or not. But I get to choose my colors, so far I would jump at buying from this site but I don't know if they will rob me or something [they have paypal, but is that secure enough?]

Anyways, my budget is around 100 dollars, give or take 20. I'm not into the custom chips, and so far pokerchipmart has the cheapest per-chip I've seen compared to other sites [$.18 per] so if I was going to order more of R/G/B/Bl/W I would order from there, but pink and purple I would have to get from 5stardeal, from what I've seen creates a lot of trouble in this forum.

One last thing, if someone could help me, what is the benefit of having 11.5g over 9g? I'm assuming the metal insert gives the extra 2.5g for each chip, and I've heard that 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 whatever is more like casinos. Becuase as a non-working college student [trying to get a job] I just want something semi-semi-authentic, without hurting my incomeless wallet.

Thanks to whoever replys.

[UnluckyKyle]

Heya, fellow college kid here. I use the 9g chips and i've gotten no complaints from anyone using them. They're a definate upgrade from the cheapo bicycle plastic ones. IMO the 11.5g chips arent worth it. They break, chip, and have varying qualities (note: same could be said for the 9g chips as well), and are expensive in direct relation to their real value.

If you want my honest opinion... go to 5stardeal.com and pick up their 1000 chip set of 9g chips... it comes with chip trays and all, for $100 shipped. As far as their customer service goes... it can be hit or miss, but from what i've gathered its usually a fine deal and they at least attempt to correct any of their issues with customers.

Tip #2, get 4 or more colors. Being able to have a flexible game is what buying chips is all about. Dont get denominations, dont get hotstamps, just get blank chips... untill you can afford a real set of chips.

My tip to anyone who's looking to get a cheap set of chips to last a while until you get a regular and higher limit game is to go with the 9g chips and upgrade (when you can afford it) to either the tophat and cane (namely paulson) or chipco (my preference). These chips retain both value and quality with age, and could be passed on.


5stardeal's 1000 chip set: http://www.5stardeal.com/deals/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=10-1010-1k

Chipco chips (crystal oyster is the best): http://www.chipco.com/home2.htm

you'll have to check ebay for the old paulson chips, they're not being sold to the general public anymore, so they're quickly becoming hard to get ahold of.

here's another link to some higher quality 8.5g chips made by chipco:
http://www.thechipstore.com/NewFiles/blank.html

[Silencer]

See my reply at the following thread.

http://www.texasholdem-poker.com/forum/ ... -vs-9-gram

It basically comes down to if you want edge marks and two-tone chips or not and how much extra you are willing to pay for it. The 9g super diamon chips are plain color and don't have edge marks or anything but they are cheap. The 11.5g two-tone design looks nice and they have edge marks but cost about twice as much.

5stardeal is pretty good I think. The 1000 chip sets they have (9g super diamond for $100 or 11.5g striped dice for $200) are great deals. If you're budget is about $120 max though than if you wanted 11.5g chips you'd probably have to look at the 500 chip sets instead.

[mindgame]

Just a note...the PaulSon chips seem to have come back down to rational levels of pricing, anywhere from $.55 to 1.10/chip. That makes them my choice inasmuch as they are the "classic" casino chip. So you get the "real deal" to play with and they likely will be a decent investment over time, scarcity almost built in because of the molds being reserved for casino chips only and the Nevada laws now requiring casinos to destroy old chips instead of selling them off.

I won't knock Chipco...the graphics are just too cool...posibilities are endless for design options. The hottest casino chips coming out of Vegas now are all Chipco designs.