Hey there! I'm glad you guys enjoyed yourselves, we had a good time also.
I really do like the look of the shavings, but there is a significant price difference. Since we just moved my Snow (the one who refused to come out of her hide while you guys were here) into a 95qt tub we needed a cheaper solution for substrate. Newspaper is of course an option, but doesn't look nice and she doesn't like it. Plus I find that it smells worse, and she tipped her water dish and made a huge mess, a problem I've not had when using aspen.
If I could find a nice big bag of the shavings for a good price, I would probably stick with that. I find that actual reptile supplies are always marked up, though.
The bag of chips we got was only $15 for 4 cubic feet (compressed to 2). Which to me is a great buy.
I'll be using it for not only my snakes, but the mouse colony and our pet rats.