I have a $100 Atlantic City Resorts chip listed on page 24 and illustrated on page 48 in Black's 2000 Catalog as C RES-100b with an estimated value of $5,000-$5,200.... but no grade is mentioned. One has never been offered for sale to the best of my knowledge, and I don't know if another one even exists that is un-notched. But I read on page 131 of Black's Catalog that this "controversial pricing guide is intended for chips and tokens in EXCELLENT condition." So maybe a notched specimen is worth considerably less.

My friend Harry wants to purchase one, but only if it is in Extra Fine condition. Well, I'll send it off to XYZCGS (XYZ Chip Grading Service)for their opinion (for a fee) and they will return it to me encapsulated in a sealed plastic airtight holder (called a slab) that can only be opened by physically breaking the slab apart. (This is done to prevent another chip of lesser quality to be inserted into a holder that has a higher grade assigned.) The holder has my name as the owner, the grade assigned and a registration number.

Well, the chip is returned to me from XYZCGS and is graded FINE. Well Harry doesn't want a FINE chip, he wants one at least XTRA FINE or better.... even though another specimen of the chip I have is not known to exist. Well, perhaps I can crack-out my sealed chip in the slab and resubmit it in the raw to another grading service who in their opinion will feel that my chip is better than only Fine. (This business is getting so lucrative now, there are a half-dozen companies that now grade chips as a service to unknowledgeable collectors.... or collectors who are not comfortable with their own grading skills) So I pay another fee, for another opinion, and send the same chip to ABC Chip Grading Services (ABCCGS). Lo and behold, it comes back graded Very Fine ... still not what my friend Harry is looking for, but certainly VF is better than Fine. In the CW "Official Guide" the difference between grades Fine and Very Fine has a 100% spread in value!

Wow! I still think that my chip is better than a measly VF.... so I send it to Jim Perlowski's Grading Service. Now,I know Jim personally, and he owes me a big favor. "Hey Jim, if I send you my $100 Resorts chip, I have a buyer who will pay me big bucks if I can get a grade of XF assigned to it from a grading company." "Well, Archie, I can't promise you anything, but I'll take a look at it. Of course I'm an honest professional with a reputation to protect, and I wouldn't do anything shady here just because I know you. But if your chip is really nice and if it deserves an XF grade, that's what I'll give it ... nothing more, nothing less.

Well, three weeks later, a package from Perlowski's grading service arrives at my P.O. Box in Brick, NJ. I frantically open it to find that good ole buddy Jim, in his honest opinion, felt that my chip deserved an XF grade. Oh boy, another 100% markup in price according to the CW pricing guide. So I call my friend Harry. Hey Har' ... guess what I've got? An XF RES-100b! Harry is now as excited as I am and says, "I'll be right over with my money to take a look." I could tell from Harry's expression that he was not in heartily agreement with the grade that my friend Jim P. had assigned to my chip. Harry says, "I don't care what that crazy Perlowski thinks.... I only see a VF chip that has been slabbed." "Your price guide refers to chips in "excellent condition"... I'll offer you $1,000 for your VF.... and I'm being generous!" (Never mind that it's the only one known)

Three months later, my friend Harry who now owns the RES-100b chip, finds out that professional grader, Mike Skelton, who used to work at Jim Perlowski's Grading Service is now working as a grader at XYZCGS. Nope, it wasn't Perlowski who graded my chip... it was his employee, Mike Skelton. Now that Skelton is working at XYZ, maybe Harry can get the XF grade Mike once assigned to Perlowski's slab, slabed into the more prestigious XYZ holder, since the chip hasn't changed, only the professional grader has. So the chip is submitted for grading another time.... and guess who is assigned to grade the same chip while working for a different grading company? Are you folloiwng me this far? Right! Mike Skelton!

I hope this long explanation answers the continuing question that so many have such a hard time grasping; "what is a slab" and why is it bad for the hobby? ... and perhaps why ANA got out of the business.

BTW: It's no secret that quite a few of ANACS graders went to work for other grading companies, who offered considerable more money to them than ANA could afford to pay.