Hal Mar Inn TRK’s from Delano, CA

scans or photos to come when I have them in hand.

outbid on the 40 chip four denom sample pack by someone who then tried to get the bigger lot.

Happy I won the yellow spotted $5’s, but wanted the stack of ten of them from the first auction to get the chip # up to 89…

Oh well. They look so beautiful in the eBay photos, hope they really are.

That red $10 is awesoe too. Regrets = finding out you really wanted something and would have bid higher to begin with if it meant you could really win it.

A CT History: semiannual update

The CT history post seems to be the most popular one here.

It needs updating, as all you CT heads understand, there is a certain amount of churn in this hobby.

So, since March 2008, judging by my checkbook entries, certain things have happened.

In reverse chronological order…

Outpost Casino cash set

This thing grew exponentially.

I used to have 2 racks of 50 cent chips, 165 $2’s and 25 $20’s.

I now have on top of that (in remote storage in California) 100 50 centers, 400 orange $2’s and 100 $5’s.

120 really nice chocolate cherries stand in for dimes in this set. 50 Palais de Congres black $20’s are on hand to backstop the 5 1/2 racks of $2’s.

This is ridiculously deep in one denom (the $2) and I don’t think I will ever use all of them in a game. The whole reason there’s so many was because I wanted the $2 to be my ‘casino’ $5, the workhorse. The 50 center would be the starting $1. Tamp down the stakes…. dime balla, woot.

photo to come.

mixed non Las Vegas casino shaped inlay tournament set

At the same time, I took the chance to get very very slightly used $25 gold chips form the Outpost as well. So with these chips as the middle denom, I started a mixed non Las Vegas casino shaped inlay tournament set. The st Jo secondary $100’s with the red cog inlay will pair up as the high denom. Just need a shaped inlay $5 from somewhere other than Las Vegas…

photo to come.

And then there’s the solid TRK cash set.

Bought back 200 plantation Sparks Casino TRK off white roulettes from bandonlooper. So I got 260 off whites. Bought some spare King’s Crown fractionals from beekeeper. Looking for more chocolate dimes and gold quarters…

Bought the ‘LG’ TRK set from metalgear3, and that came with 100 chocolates, 100 slightly dingy yellows, 65 beautiful orange chips and 35 beautiful gold chips. So for now, the orange ones will backstop the off whites.

Depending on whether I get more dimes or quarters to match the King’s Crown, that will make another micro cash set dimes or quarters (see the fun in non denom?), except this one is a TRK mixed hotstamped solid set. (Are you beginning to see a trend here? If it doesn’t have a twist in it in some way, I tend to get bored. Also, if others can duplicate it easily, I find it boring as well. Snobbism as filter. It’s not cheap. it also doesn’t lend itself well to resale.)

So I have added 1500 chips since March. Nothing went out. Following Buffet’s advice. I’m buying American clay equity.

Free flow thoughts

A few thoughts:

Have you ever noticed that the TH & C’s on either side of one of your chips are not aligned? I mean, they are not aligned so that the depressions are back to back. Which means that the two halves of the mold do not come down aligned at all. Flip a chip back and forth, keeping track of where the hat is on the rim and see if the hat on the other side is directly behind it. It usually isn’t. And almost all chips are different in their misalignment. Which means each chip will sound slightly different than the others because the actual mass configuration of the chip is different. (Knee jerk assumption, may be totally wrong.)

My TRK’s show the same lack of mold alignment. The small crowns don’t match back to back.

ASM’s, I can’t confirm because they’re not at the office.

Another thought.. I wonder why BCC won’t do custom edgespot punch dies for customers? That’s 5K easy. And they’ve done it in the past?! (MSPatton’s quarter pie)

EDIT: apparently the quarter pie punch was bought from TRK by MS Patton.

I was all ready to start saving for my own weird edgespot punch. And they go and say no. Of course not directly to my face, as jdalton posted it.

May have to phone them and verify why?

Here’s my reason: BCC really doesn’t want to ever do a body color fill in a 3T18 or 4T18 to get that fake split spot pattern we all love.

The bits of edgespot color that they have to insert to try and match the body ostensibly are the same color, but batch color variations and different process steps being what they are, they end up not looking right.

So why not make a REAL split spot pattern die?

Easy peasy, right?

The other thing that bothers me on the actual Paulson split edgespot pattern is that the 1/8″ spot stripes are parallel to each other, which to be honest seems forced. For some reason I want to see them radiating from the center, which means they have to be angling away from each other, not parallel.

Hence, my desire for my own radiating split spot pattern. In a tri-spot configuration. (See Harold’s Club chips) I don’t think this is a new idea.

Oh well. BCC just saved me 5k.

to close on a high note: just got back two racks of TRK off white Plantation Casino solid roulette chips from Sparks, NV. Thank you bandonlooper. My babies are back.

Now I have 260 total of the off white. With the Kings Crown chocolate dimes and quarters, I need some $5’s to finish this solid cash set.

Sabbatical my ass.

tonypap is psychic

Or just reads this blog…

Either case, I’m officially screwed. Major big chipset purchase indigestion. But I couldn’t help myself.

Watch out for future classified WTS listings @CT. Gotta offload (not the new chips, the other chips languishing on my closet floor).

Still kicking myself.

January 2006, before the FALL of the scrown Empire.

The Chinese character in the middle is my father’s cursive script for the word “Lazy”.

“LRC” = Lazy River Club