Vendor Spotlight: Casinosupply.com

Casinosupply.com was the vendor who provided me with the custom printed felt and many of the accessories I have on my table. The service was absolutely top notch and friendly to boot. The sales rep I dealt with, Jay, didn't seem at all bothered to help someone who was building a table for home use as opposed to a big customer. Jay spent a lot of time listening and asking questions as to what I wanted from my layout and the final result shows his attention to detail. Jay even emailed me a sample of the artwork over the weekend, how awesome is that?!?  Even when I kept wanting to change things on the layout they handled my revision requests with patience and a text book professionalism that you just don't see often.

Layout

The finished product, WOW!

Still in progress Almost finished with the table

Of all the things I bought for my table, I had the most fun and excitment shopping for and buying the felt. Rolling it out the first time and seeing the personalized design was an absolute blast and really helped to keep me energized during the build.

If you are thinking of going the build your own route then do yourself a favor and get your felt from the folks at Casinosupply.com

Stool Sample

The stools are in!  The stools are in!  I'm doing a happy dance here, and you had just better be thankful you can't see it.  Don't tempt me either, I have a Flip so you could be seeing my happy dance in HD.

Stool Sample.  Still not tired of that joke.

The stools represent one of the single biggest outlays of expense for the table, and their importance is hard to overestimate.  If the stools are uncomfortable who will want to play?  Well fear not, I have sat upon each and every one and can assure you of their comfort and stooliness.  I was neither stuck on top of, nor did I fall off the stool, both basic indicators to the general suitability of the stool as a place upon which to sit.

It's happy!  No, it's Retro.  Relax kids, it's both Happy and Retro.

I ordered the stools from IVG Stores, and I was very happy with the price and service.  The stools took about two weeks to get here and they appear to be drop shipped from the manufacturer, the date stamp on the bottom of each stool indicates they were made to order.  The stools were priced very reasonable at just a few dollars above $100 each delivered.  I'm very lucky considering that 4 of the 7 were gifts from my Mom and Grandmother for Christmas!  That's good news for you too, now you guys don't have as much to buy from my Amazon links for me to break even!  I mean you still have to buy some stuff so get to clicking and add to cart, you'll be grateful you did!

Loredo Garnet

The stool's model is "Happy Retro"  it's chrome base and styling fit well with my deco/50's lounge mashup.  The stools are available in two sizes,  26" height for most home bars, and 30" commercial bar height.  My table is about 42" so the stools themselves are needed to be true bar height at 30".  The color is these picture is Laredo Garnet.  All in all I got to say I couldn't be more thrilled at such sturdy, high quality stools at such a fantastic price.

Most of the time I sell you things I like or use, so this time I think I will sell you things I'm not likely to use.

Vendor Spotlight: Spinettis Gaming

This is a new feature where I will post about my experiences with the many businesses out there who willingly accept my money in trade for the things I need for my project. There is a complex economical term to describe this type of exchange of money for goods, but since this is a light blog and not an academic journal I will not bore you with a bunch of jargon just to show how book smart I am.  Oh okay, I'll get technical if you insist.  It's a little something I like to call commerce.  Feel free to use the term in conversation if you want, I don't mind as long as I get some credit when you do.

First up is Spinettis Gaming, located in beautiful sunny Mecca Las Vegas, this family owned store rightfully calls itself  "A Candy Store For Real Gamblers".  I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a lot about 'real gambling' because I have never once won a casino, but let me tell you I know a thing or two about candy.  (I'm big boned)  Their products for the most part taste terrible, which candy most defiantly does not.  Putting matters of flavor aside they have a ginormous selection of accessories and things that I want to own.

My first purchase from Spinettis was a set of the sweet Dunes commemorative chips that had that perfect retro vibe I wanted.  I shopped around many retailers and eBay and for building out your own set Spinetti's had the most reasonable price per piece with shipping of anywhere I had looked.  I also ordered a dealers toke box (think tip jar with a lock).  Both items came well packaged, as described and shipped very quickly making it to my home in Atlanta in about three days.

They see me rollin', they hatin'

Luck be a lady tonight!

Today I ordered cards for the table, which is more troublesome than you might imagine, since I need cards with 'No Peek Faces'.  'No Peek Faces' are different from the more familiar 'No Peek Index' cards which are much easier to come by.  For those not familiar with the term the index is the value declaration in the corner of the card.  Most playing cards feature a 'Regular Index' or in some case and enlarged or 'Jumbo Index' which sits 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the corner of the card.  A 'No Peek Index' moves the index further into the corner, this style is popular with poker players as you may keep your cards face down on the table and just barely lift the edge of your cards to see your whole hand.

Toke box!  Obligatory 4:20 joke is absent.

My blackjack table will have a mirror style no peek device to allow the dealer to check the hole card for blackjack.  The dealer only needs to know if there is an ace or a face card in the hole, so aces and faces are the only indexes that should be visible to the mirror so they have a 'No Peek' style index, cards 2-9 are in the 'Regular Index' position so the dealer can not see the exact card in the hole, instead they can only tell if they have a blackjack or not.   Thus 'No Peek Faces'.

As luck would have it Spinettis had uncanceled 'No Peek Faces' decks in stock - so I ordered 8 in red and 8 in blue.  The website had some difficulty calculating the shipping on my order so it displayed a message to call the store.  I spoke with Josh I believe and he looked up my online order and had me taken care of in a matter of minutes.

I joke a lot about selling stuff on here through amazon and all - but this is no joke, two orders in and I am very pleased with the price, service and selection Spinettis offers.  If you are going to try your own table build please consider shopping with them.

/Brian.