Beyond our typical collecting habit, i.e., onesies or twosies of individual chips from gaming or casino operations, there is another style to collecting, that of home game sets, often called "playable" sets. Playable sets are typically large enough to support a home game of up to 10 players, but some participants are looking for playable sets that would support multiple tables of tournament play.

One of the most wanted chips of these collectors, are Paul-Son made, hat and cane, clay-composition chips, with TR King (large or small crown molds) also being in demand. The emphasis here is that the chips be useable (for actual game play) as opposed to being framed, or filed in a box. Many of these collectors like to oil the chips, in an effort to make them easier to handle when stacking, cutting, shuffling and the like during game play.

Oiling can also help 'bring out' the brightness of color, or luster of a Paul-Son clay-composition chip, kind of like what Armour-All can do for plastic and rubber.

However, I would not recommend the oiling of chips. I believe that baby oil is what is used, which is a petroleum-based oil.

Jim