I don't view the creation of "the list" as devisive, but instead, an informative tool for others (collectors and dealers) in combatting ICG's desired introduction of slabbing into the chip hobby. The primary focus in this contest is ICG, not other chippers, IMO.

At the risk of stating the obvious, ICG, as the provider of their grading/slabbing service, has 2 target markets: individual chippers and chip dealers.

Individual chippers can send their chips (and pay the ICG fee) to get their chips slabbed, and return them to their collection. They can do this at anytime, as long as ICG continues to provide this service. The signers of the list have declared that they don't want slabbed chips in their collection, and my guess is that many (most?) other chippers, not on the list won't use this service either. But the only time that a chipper who has his/her chips slabbed will bump into any of the list signers is at the point he/she wants to sell one of their slabbed chips. This may be many years down the road.

Chip dealers are an important customer segment for ICG because, if slabbing catches on, chip dealers move more quantity of chips than individual chippers. Chip dealers become a distributor for the ICG services, funneling already-slabbed chips to individual collectors. In one sense, dealers are there to provide to customers the products they (the end-customers) want. (As an unrelated example, as slot card collecting has become more popular, more dealers have started offering them.) The list is particularly useful to communicate to dealers that if they choose to start selling slabbed chips, there's 250+ collectors who have chosen to discontinue doing business with them. Not just declining to buy slabbed chips from them, but declining to buy ANY chips from them. The dealer is free to offer or not offer slabbed chips, but it should give most dealers pause if he/she sees some familiar customers' names on "the list".

If "the list" causes virtually all dealers to choose not to offer slabbed chips for sale, then ICG is confined to the individual chipper market. And it's my hope that the individual market won't be big enough to sustain ICG's interest in slabbing chips.

In summary, I think the list has a unifying potential among chippers, even those who choose not to sign it. The quicker we can return to a slab-free chipping environment, the better, IMO.