Buying agarwood chips: a beginner's guide

Agarwood chips are the most common way into this market, and also where many first-time buyers overpay or end up with material that is not what the listing implied. Grade vocabulary changes from seller to seller, and two chips that look much the same in a photo can be priced very differently. This guide covers what to check before you buy.

Chips as a starting point

Chips are pieces of resinous agarwood meant to be gently heated rather than set alight, as covered in how to burn agarwood chips. Many people find them an approachable first purchase, because a small bag can be sampled over many sessions, and you can see and handle what you bought. If you are still deciding between formats, oud oil vs agarwood chips compares the two.

Reading a chip listing

Most listings lead with a grade, but there is no single international grading standard for agarwood. Labels such as "super" and "double super" are common in Southeast Asian trade, particularly for Malaysian and Indonesian gaharu, to signal heavy resin coverage, but what one seller calls super another may call double super. Letter grades and numbered grades are no more standard. A specific description, such as how much of the piece is resin, and whether it sinks, tells you more than the label. How agarwood is graded explains the criteria these labels are meant to reflect.

Sinking, partly sinking and floating

Listings often describe chips as sinking, partly sinking or floating. Wood denser than water, about one gram per cubic centimetre, sinks, and resin is what makes agarwood that dense. That is why the trade has long used sinking as a marker of the top grades, and why the Chinese name chénxiāng means "sinking fragrance."

It is a useful check, not a guarantee. Plenty of genuine agarwood, including most plantation material, floats because it has less resin. That is only a problem if it was sold as sinking grade. And a sinking piece is not automatically good, because wood can be injected with oil or other material to raise its density, as covered in fake oud: what to look for.

Price and what drives it

Chip prices range from inexpensive plantation material to sums that are hard to believe for the rarest wild wood. The main drivers are resin content, whether the wood is wild or plantation grown, origin and form. Because there is no public price index and grade names are inconsistent, the only fair comparison is like with like: same origin, same wild or plantation claim, similar resin and density. How much does agarwood cost? gathers documented price examples.

Plantation chips, covered in wild vs plantation agarwood, are generally far more affordable than wild wood, and many enthusiasts suggest them as a sensible way to learn what you like before spending more.

What a good listing includes

• Origin: a named country, and ideally a region.
• Source: whether the wood is wild or plantation grown, and if plantation, whether the resin was induced.
• Grade: the grade name plus what it means by that seller's own standard, including whether it sinks.
• Photos of the actual chips: close up, in good light, not stock images.
• Treatment: a clear statement that nothing has been added, or what has.

Listings that only say "premium oud" or "rare agarwood" without these details are harder to judge and worth treating with caution, as covered in red flags when buying agarwood.

A first-buyer checklist

• The listing states origin and whether the wood is wild or plantation grown.
• The grade name is explained, not just stated.
• The price is in line with comparable listings making the same claims.
• Photos show the actual chips you will receive.
• The seller answers questions specifically and consistently.
• You are buying a small quantity first.

Questions to ask before you buy oud turns this into a fuller checklist to use with any seller.