James; Thanks for your post. Let me say up front that lots of folks have put in just as much work (and more)into the hobby as you have and who have not gained financially by it for their efforts. I'm not against high priced chips. Yes, I have several of them in my collection as well. I'm against somebody else not familiar with our hobby, coming in and telling us what their fancy grades (translated into higher prices) chips are that I/we may want to purchase in the future. Where are ICG's proposed grading standards published? Has anybody seen them? Who are their mysterious expert graders at the local levels around the country? Has anyone gotten any names?

The "control" of our club that you say you are so concerned about, is left up to the membership to vote into office those candidates who best represents the individual membership's viewpoints. Always has, always will. If someone is THAT concerned about the direction or "control" of the club, then perhaps they should be running for office also. I dare say that a large percentage of the membership does not really care who is heading up the club. All many of them want to do is to be left alone, pay their dues, get their magazine, attend the convention, buy, sell and trade among other club members, etc. and not become embroiled in the politics of the matter. Many of them probably do not even know who the current officers are. The fact is that most every controversial issue that concerns this club is going to be decided by the club officers who were voted into office.... not the membership. That's how it works. There are going to be guidlines, rules, policies and regulations put into effect by each newly elected administration that each and every club member is going to be expected to abide by... whether they like them or not.

There is no disputing the fact that the hobby has lots of room to grow with thousands of affordable chips to collect. That's not a new revelation. We're not talking about the chips that are routinely sold for four figures. That will always be. No one is saying that those truly scarce items in our hobby should not be expensive... or devalued. I am concerned about the by far lesser value chips that are going to be slabbed and population reports issued that this is the finest chip known (based on chips that have been submitted to a slabbing company).

James; Bowlers who go bowling 3,4,5 times a week as a FUN hobby activity don't need to have their score sheets put into slabs to enjoy their hobby. They know what their scores were. Season ticket holders for major sports events don't need to have their ticket stubs slabbed to enjoy their FUN hobby. They know what the final score was and which team won when they attended the game. Chip collectors don't need their chips slabbed under the buzzword "FUN" from some so-called "expert" to tell them something they already know.

You know the value of your Sands arrowdie chip, don't you James? Of course you do. Are you comfortable with describing the condition it is in? Of course. Do you think that your chip could stand on its own merits and be sold to another deserving collector at a fair price when the time comes to dispose of it? Of course it will. When you sell one of your high-end chips James, do you not stand behind it? Or do you think that by someone else with less knowledge than you, can bump it up to something it is not? Do you think that some dealers will cop out by stating as Jim Perlowski opined, "hey, I didn't grade this slabbed chip.... ICG, or some other grading slabbing company did". Is ICG going to stand behind their grades and offer to make things right if they screwed up on a high end chip like you would? I don't think so. ICG does not purchase coins, and from what I've read, they will not be in the market for purchasing chips. Kind of like not putting their money where their mouth is.

James, I know that you are a big buyer of rare and high-end chips, and that you pay fair and decent prices to get what you are after.... and that's commendable. I've observed you first-hand in action at the club's annual auctions and you have consistently been a big buyer. Several of your winning bids drew admiring ah's and oooh's from the audience. ICG isn't in the market to purchase chips. They are content with the cash register clinking a steady $10 a pop for each chip that is submitted to their questionable valuable service .... no matter what grade is assigned to OUR chips, .... and not having to account to anyone for their mistakes.

I will continue to comment and speak out on this issue on the bulletin board as I strongly feel it is very important to the future health of our hobby. If there are those who are tired of reading posts regarding the slabbing subject matter, I'm sorry, then simply skip over every post that has the name ARCHIE associated to it. On the other hand, there may be some readers who appreciate what I've got to say.