Unless there can be a clear demarcation between all categories I see the same abuses happening in chips (and tokens, ss, etc) has happens in coins. Afterall, at some point in wear an "excellent" chip becomes a "used" chip. Whom do we trust to actually grade a chip "excellent" as opposed to "used". Do I smell a slabbing service? I think we can assume that a high-end "used" chip (is that an oxymoron?) will be advertised on eBay as "excellent or "near excellent". A mid to lower grade "used" chip becomes "used+++" and so on.

I got a solution. How about tid, "new" is graded from MS69 to MS70. "Excellent" will be graded from MS60 to MS68, etc.

I'm obviously being facetious. I hope, however, 've made the point that any grading system (even a well-intentioned one like Jim's) can lead to abuses.