on the newsgroup. Here it is:

The slabbing juggernaut is resisted by traditionalists everywhere it goes. It tends to damage the trade in counterfeit and overgraded stuff. They can always crack them out, but somehow never do. They always claim the slabs are overgraded and it would be financially stupid to crack them because the grade on the slab sells for more.

Yet price is supply and demand. Overgrading results in increased supply at "higher" grades which reduces prices to what they would have been anyway. Slabbing of authentic and problem-free material increases the likelihood that unslabbbed material is junk. But many dealers prefer to blame "overgraded" slabs for the lower price of their similarly graded material, rather than admit that it is a case of caveat emptor and that slabs have a market in collectors who have a real interest but lesser expertise which translates to higher demand and prices for slabs.

From: David Ryan <David_Ryan@adware.com>

Interesting reading.