Four dragons chip

[Gtacollector2001]

Could someone possibly tell me which version of the gta san Andreas poker chip is the rarest and how to tell the difference???

[ChengizVlad09]

Well, buckle up your seat belt, 'cause this one is going to be a bit tricky and long. Hopefully not that boring and on-point most importantly.

 

There are Original and Anniversary Casino Chips. As far as we know, there are no, or at least there shouldn't be any visible differences between the looks of the Original and the Anniversary Set of Chips in regards to their appearance or any indicators that could point out to different manufacturing process or craftsmanship as well. They should be literally the same. Same material and imprints, the same shape and size. Since both editions were clearly made out of plastic, they both have that characteristic ' plasticky ' sound and feel to them. First ones are mainly called ' original ' since they were the first ones to be released. Anniversary ones were packed separately from Black Deck of Cards, but still within the same, only larger plastic baggy along with the Black Deck. There should be 10 of them in 5 different colors, where each chip comes in a pair of Black, Blue, Purple, Orange and Green color. With the Anniversary Chips (2014), Rockstar definitely didn't include the White Deck of cards, hence when we see it, (usually sealed) we instantly know it's the original deck (2004). 

 

There's also one important thing to have in mind: it is entirely possible that the Original Pack of Cards & Chips don't exist, meaning there are definitely the Original Cards - Black$White - probably the Original Chips as well, but we don't know for sure that OG Chips were bundled with them in that particular way or were they sold separately, or how many of them was there or whether the packaging was different but nonetheless, they should be pretty much the same as Anniversary Chips in regards to mentioned attributes.

 

Edit: Here's the difference actually: Soldering or welding point. According to guys from GTA Series Videos, notice how the welding lines with the Original lie more closer to the both edges, while with the Anniversary chips it is centered in the middle. So, be on the look out for that particular detail if you are interested in purchase. Totally slipped my mind. Source: @GTA-Series.com Not sure whether the originals could be found in other available colors, or more importantly; could Originals actually be the same as " Contest Chips ", mentioned below, since the contest chip looks exactly the same like the ones portrayed in the picture. At least when looked from the profile. Anyway, if they are metal-alike and not plastic, then it's definitely true, even the year of release adds up.

https://i.imgur.com/8fZyoHB.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/30tudUn.jpg - This is how Ann. Pack looks like, we can only assume that the OG pack looks the same. BTW, don't mind the " Original " on the packaging. They are undoubtedly the Anniversary ones.

 

Blind Dragon Chip (Plastic One).

Unlike dragon drawing of the Regular Chip, the blind one has an imprint of a dragon with cane and glasses, hence the difference (Nice reference to SA story, btw).

I'm not sure whether it came with the original set of cards and chips - probably didn't - but afaik, it was included in the anniversary package. There could be a chance that one of the black color or a Black Chip inside the ANN Pack was reserved for the blind dragon imprint on it, but it could be any other color - besides the black one - I personally saw, Blue, Purple and Green Blind Dragon Chips, but never the Orange one. 

We mainly think that during the promotion of GTA SA in 2004 or 2005 - PS2&XBox releases - Rockstar used to send Blind Dragon Chips separately - in various colors, mainly blue&purple - to VIP's, store managers and certain folks from the gaming press. 

In conclusion and if the above holds any water, there could be no way to tell the Original from Anniversary Blind Dragon Chip in regards to their appearance and make but only in case if the certain colors were indeed reserved specifically for each of them - like Blue&Purple for the Originals or Black for the Anniversary ones, like it's the general opinion.

 

Unlike, OG&ANN editions, Regular or Blind Dragons, there is the "Contest chip " - I call it like that simply because of the simplicity - that was included in the Official Xbox Magazine in 2005, during the Rockstar Games BMX Giveaway. It was packed inside the cardboard " 4 Dragons Casino " envelope. It comes exclusively in Black color. Interestingly enough and even though the visual design is exactly the same - looks entirely the same as both OG&ANN Regulars and Blinds - this one has been made out of a different material. Definitely, there's a ' metal-alike' sound and feel to it - no pun intended, lol. Its edges feel rounded while those from above have somewhat sharper ones, but the differences are really subtle anyway. Maybe it feels a tiny bit heavier as well.

 

Now, there is the " Red Blind Dragon " chip. Elusive as dragons from the stories, really. Since the entire point of that particular giveaway was to find Blind Dragon Chip, which was allegedly imprinted on the Red Chip inside that envelope, no one has ever seen it, except for the winners possibly ofc, who btw, had to sent it back to XBM or Rockstar as a proof of winning. There were only 10 of these chips as far as we know, although, more than 10 BMX's has been sent throughout other giveaways. As the rules on the back of the envelope state, this one was supposed to be Red, unlike the Regular Black Contest Chip. It was probably also metal-alike, although it would be a nice touch if it was plasticky to reflect and pronounce its "fake" nature even more, just like in the game itself, but that's anyone's guess as well.

 

There are casino chips that were included with the " GTA SA Poker Briefcase " or " Mobile Casino ". To save myself some trouble of writing you can check about it, here: https://gtaforums.com/topic/899132-gtasapokerbriefcase/

Are those in the briefcase made from metal-alike substance or are they made from plastic? - it's impossible to tell just by looking at it.

 

Why there are metal and plastic chips, remains to be unknown. Could be that Rockstar used two different companies to get them made, could be that metal ones were made my XB Magazine in co-op with R*, or any other number of reasons.

 

According to my own personal sense, I would grade them somewhat like this.

 

Common: Regular Anniversary Chips 

 

Rarish: Original Regular Chips, Blind Anniversary Chips, Black Contest Chip

 

Rare: Original Blind Chips

 

Extremely Rare: Casino Briefcase Chips

 

Unique: Red Blind Chip

 

Please note that it's really hard to check the facts for sure, so do take things with a grain of salt. Also, it goes without saying that you should never pay 'premium' price for just one 'isolated' chip if you arent 100 percent sure of its nature. Hope this could come in handy to anyone when it comes to bargain with the sellers, just don't misuse it, since all the knowledge would be useless then, no matter how brittle it may be.

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by ChengizVlad09

[Gtacollector2001]

Thank you so much this really helped I've bought a sa casino chip yesterday and it's in the mail the now mint condition got it for £13 

[Jd63737]

On 4/11/2020 at 6:14 AM, ChengizVlad09 said:

Well, buckle up your seat belt, 'cause this one is going to be a bit tricky and long. Hopefully not that boring and on-point most importantly.

 

There are Original and Anniversary Casino Chips. As far as we know, there are no, or at least there shouldn't be any visible differences between the looks of the Original and the Anniversary Set of Chips in regards to their appearance or any indicators that could point out to different manufacturing process or craftsmanship as well. They should be literally the same. Same material and imprints, the same shape and size. Since both editions were clearly made out of plastic, they both have that characteristic ' plasticky ' sound and feel to them. First ones are mainly called ' original ' since they were the first ones to be released. Anniversary ones were packed separately from Black Deck of Cards, but still within the same, only larger plastic baggy along with the Black Deck. There should be 10 of them in 5 different colors, where each chip comes in a pair of Black, Blue, Purple, Orange and Green color. With the Anniversary Chips (2014), Rockstar definitely didn't include the White Deck of cards, hence when we see it, (usually sealed) we instantly know it's the original deck (2004). 

 

There's also one important thing to have in mind: it is entirely possible that the Original Pack of Cards & Chips don't exist, meaning there are definitely the Original Cards - Black$White - probably the Original Chips as well, but we don't know for sure that OG Chips were bundled with them in that particular way or were they sold separately, or how many of them was there or whether the packaging was different but nonetheless, they should be pretty much the same as Anniversary Chips in regards to mentioned attributes.

 

Edit: Here's the difference actually: Soldering or welding point. According to guys from GTA Series Videos, notice how the welding lines with the Original lie more closer to the both edges, while with the Anniversary chips it is centered in the middle. So, be on the look out for that particular detail if you are interested in purchase. Totally slipped my mind. Source: @GTA-Series.com Not sure whether the originals could be found in other available colors, or more importantly; could Originals actually be the same as " Contest Chips ", mentioned below, since the contest chip looks exactly the same like the ones portrayed in the picture. At least when looked from the profile. Anyway, if they are metal-alike and not plastic, then it's definitely true, even the year of release adds up.

https://i.imgur.com/8fZyoHB.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/30tudUn.jpg - This is how Ann. Pack looks like, we can only assume that the OG pack looks the same. BTW, don't mind the " Original " on the packaging. They are undoubtedly the Anniversary ones.

 

Blind Dragon Chip (Plastic One).

Unlike dragon drawing of the Regular Chip, the blind one has an imprint of a dragon with cane and glasses, hence the difference (Nice reference to SA story, btw).

I'm not sure whether it came with the original set of cards and chips - probably didn't - but afaik, it was included in the anniversary package. There could be a chance that one of the black color or a Black Chip inside the ANN Pack was reserved for the blind dragon imprint on it, but it could be any other color - besides the black one - I personally saw, Blue, Purple and Green Blind Dragon Chips, but never the Orange one. 

We mainly think that during the promotion of GTA SA in 2004 or 2005 - PS2&XBox releases - Rockstar used to send Blind Dragon Chips separately - in various colors, mainly blue&purple - to VIP's, store managers and certain folks from the gaming press. 

In conclusion and if the above holds any water, there could be no way to tell the Original from Anniversary Blind Dragon Chip in regards to their appearance and make but only in case if the certain colors were indeed reserved specifically for each of them - like Blue&Purple for the Originals or Black for the Anniversary ones, like it's the general opinion.

 

Unlike, OG&ANN editions, Regular or Blind Dragons, there is the "Contest chip " - I call it like that simply because of the simplicity - that was included in the Official Xbox Magazine in 2005, during the Rockstar Games BMX Giveaway. It was packed inside the cardboard " 4 Dragons Casino " envelope. It comes exclusively in Black color. Interestingly enough and even though the visual design is exactly the same - looks entirely the same as both OG&ANN Regulars and Blinds - this one has been made out of a different material. Definitely, there's a ' metal-alike' sound and feel to it - no pun intended, lol. Its edges feel rounded while those from above have somewhat sharper ones, but the differences are really subtle anyway. Maybe it feels a tiny bit heavier as well.

 

Now, there is the " Red Blind Dragon " chip. Elusive as dragons from the stories, really. Since the entire point of that particular giveaway was to find Blind Dragon Chip, which was allegedly imprinted on the Red Chip inside that envelope, no one has ever seen it, except for the winners possibly ofc, who btw, had to sent it back to XBM or Rockstar as a proof of winning. There were only 10 of these chips as far as we know, although, more than 10 BMX's has been sent throughout other giveaways. As the rules on the back of the envelope state, this one was supposed to be Red, unlike the Regular Black Contest Chip. It was probably also metal-alike, although it would be a nice touch if it was plasticky to reflect and pronounce its "fake" nature even more, just like in the game itself, but that's anyone's guess as well.

 

There are casino chips that were included with the " GTA SA Poker Briefcase " or " Mobile Casino ". To save myself some trouble of writing you can check about it, here: https://gtaforums.com/topic/899132-gtasapokerbriefcase/

Are those in the briefcase made from metal-alike substance or are they made from plastic? - it's impossible to tell just by looking at it.

 

Why there are metal and plastic chips, remains to be unknown. Could be that Rockstar used two different companies to get them made, could be that metal ones were made my XB Magazine in co-op with R*, or any other number of reasons.

 

According to my own personal sense, I would grade them somewhat like this.

 

Common: Regular Anniversary Chips 

 

Rarish: Original Regular Chips, Blind Anniversary Chips, Black Contest Chip

 

Rare: Original Blind Chips

 

Extremely Rare: Casino Briefcase Chips

 

Unique: Red Blind Chip

 

Please note that it's really hard to check the facts for sure, so do take things with a grain of salt. Also, it goes without saying that you should never pay 'premium' price for just one 'isolated' chip if you arent 100 percent sure of its nature. Hope this could come in handy to anyone when it comes to bargain with the sellers, just don't misuse it, since all the knowledge would be useless then, no matter how brittle it may be.

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

 

 

As far as the packaging of the OG chips and OG deck of cards, my contention is that they did infact come bundled together. The OG deck of cards and OG poker chips from 2004 also came in a plastic bag (but with a different label to the one from 2014) how do i know because i own it (; 

Edited April 15, 2020 by ChengizVlad09

[ChengizVlad09]

@johndoe365 

 

As you can see I wasn't really sure of its existence. It's awesome to know there's a complete pack of the Original Set of Playing Cards & Poker Chips! Also, it's even better we can make a clear difference between the OG & ANN Editions simply by distinguishing the sticker on the baggy. If you don't mind, I would really like if you could send me/us some close ups of the chips themselves? As you can see from the picture above, these OG or First Edition Chips should be different from the ANN or Second Edition ones. I have my doubts about that. Oh, can you inspect one more thing for me? Are they made out of plastic or do they feel like they've been made out of metal? Check your " contest " chip for comparison, you'll see the clear difference in the make between that chip and anniversary one. I want to know how these sealed OG Chips compare to both.

Btw, as far as I can see from the posted pic, they look exactly the same as the anniversary chips.

 

Here's how ANN Chips look like. These were originally included in the anniversary pack along with the cards, but I bought them without the cards sadly. They were around 20 USD, so I thought it was a good deal regardless, lol. Anyway, they were included within the anniversary baggy, which I use to keep some of the stickers, lol.

 

 

https://i.imgur.com/HN4uQlG.jpg

Edited April 12, 2020 by ChengizVlad09

[Jd63737]

Here are a few pics of the chips  , chips feel plasticy but they do have some rigidity and weight to them, but the comparision is hard to distinguish between the contest chip 

Edited April 12, 2020 by johndoe365

[ChengizVlad09]

Indeed it is hard to tell them apart straight off the bat, but not impossible. Actually, check the obvious, single connecting line that goes through the middle, all around the original chip, seen from the side. It's the same connecting line we can observe in the anniversary chip. Contest chip has two in comparison. They both go through the middle, but are closer to the edges of the chip. Also, from what I can see, it seems that the edges of the original chip are sharper in contrast to the contest chip, which feel rounded. Just like when comparing anniversary to contest chips. The most obvious, dead giveaway is the material, though. Give them both a light knock or two, preferably with your fingernail - both the contest and original chip - and you will definitely see, hear and feel the difference. The contest chip is undoubtedly made out of some different, metal-alike material, where as you can confirm, the original is made out of plastic, just like the anniversary one. When it comes to imprints, all three possess literally the same imprints and ink.

 

Sadly, I don't have a digital precision weight scale, so I cannot tell for sure how much either of them weighs. I do however have some analog kitchen one, that's far from being precise to a gram, but from what I can tell, these bundled anniversary chips weigh anywhere from around 60ish to a lower portion of 70ish grams, max. That's just for reference, not a fact.

 

In case you have one, or if you can borrow or if you can perhaps find access to a digital precision weight scale and weigh those originals, it will be my task as well to measure the weight of the bundled anniversary chips, just as well as the contest chip and compare it all, that would be nice!

 

@johndoe365

 

EDIT: Since, it intrigued me to find out the their exact weight, I went and bought a digital kitchen scale. Sadly it isn't precise beyond grams - doesn't show milligrams, but it doesn't matter, I've managed to determine their weight with little help of deduction. I have 17 chips in total. 10 are still packed in their plastic sheet and are from the Anniversary Pack of Playing Cards and Poker Chips. 5 of them are most likely from the opened pack of Anniversary ones - Green, Orange, Purple & Blue, which also contain the Black Blind Dragon. I have the Blue Blind Dragon Chip, just as well as the Black Contest Chip.

 

The Results: The weight scale tells us each individual chip from the lot of 5 - most likely anniversary ones - weighs 7 gr. - including the Black Blind Dragon Chip. Weighing those 5 all together, weight scale shows exactly 37 grams. Since the weight scale doesn't show decimals - there are no milligrams shown - it can be assumed, that each chip actually weighs around 7.4 grams, which is an additional 400 mg. The same applies to Black Blind Dragon Chip. Weighing the intact and still sealed pack of Anniversary chips - bundle of 10 - scale shows 74 grams, which adds up with the calculation above perfectly. Couple of mgr goes on outer plastic shielding which holds them together, but it's most likely in the margin of error. Blue Blind Dragon Chip weighs the same, since the scale shows 7 grams as well (plus, 400 to anywhere around 490 mg). Testing the bundle of 5 ann. chips with this one instead of the Black Blind Dragon Chip, scale also shows 37 gr. The most interesting one is the Contest Chip which is definitely heavier than any other chip. Scale shows 12 grams - more precisely anywhere between 12 and 13, but definitely not 13 or over.

 

Note: Since the scale isn't precise enough, there could be some deviations in the calculus, so the measurements themselves could be off by couple of dozens of milligrams, plus the weight scale itself possibly might not be calibrated to the exact milligram, mainly since it's not designed to measure weight that precisely in the first place.

Edited April 14, 2020 by ChengizVlad09

[Jd63737]

Will try to weigh them, unfortuneately i dont think i have a digital scale atm

[ChengizVlad09]

Thanks man, I think that if the 1st Edition, Original Chips weigh the same as the 2nd Edition, Anniversary chips, then there's no way of setting them apart from one another, which means they are literally the same in every regard then. For what it's worth, at least we know that the entire pack of Playing Cards & Poker Chips could be differentiated by the sticker, which is a cool thing, since the sellers won't be able to say it's the Original 2004 Edition Pack if it has the sticker like the one I showed above, or we will definitely know that they are from 2004 if the entire package has the same sticker like yours, especially if it's the Black Deck from 2004 inside the package.

Edited April 14, 2020 by ChengizVlad09

[Mikester]

Cheers, everyone! This was a good read. Up to this point I have never found such a dedicated community and with such a huge attention to details.

However, I have a question regarding the differences between the original and anniversary edition. I recently found in my house some items which I am now looking to sell(and try to figure out the pricing), among which I have 9 poker chips and one Blind Dragon.

I won these in a contest on a forum back in 2005, a couple of weeks after San Andreas was released on PC.

Regarding this: @ChengizVlad09 "Here's the difference actually: Soldering or welding point. According to guys from GTA Series Videos, notice how the welding lines with the Original lie more closer to the both edges, while with the Anniversary chips it is centered in the middle. So, be on the look out for that particular detail if you are interested in purchase. "  - is there another way of telling them apart considering I do not have any packaging?

I sent an email to @GTA-Series.com looking for an idea on how to differentiate the editions, as my chips have the welding line on the middle but they are from the first edition, not from the 2014 one.

As I'm not a collector or an expert on GTA promo items, I don't intend on contradicting anyone (especially collectors who have a history in these rare items) but I'm not sure this is quite the way to tell apart which edition is which.

I'll add here a photo. At the moment, the only way I can prove the date of the items is by the metadata (IPTC and EXIF) of several photos I took of some items after receiving them.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3j252tgzz5uzj3q/SM_4640 (Copy).jpg?dl=0