Wow did I hit a nerve. My first time on this site and man-o-man did I ignite a bomb! First, to all of you that personally attacked me (not the issue), cut and paste and took many things out of context, claimed you put me on your not good lists, questioned my motives and sought my agenda, I say nothing. To those of you that disagreed with me but were cordial in your responses both on this site and sent me direct individual e-mails, I say THANK YOU! To begin with, I had no agenda. I wanted to express my thoughts on a subject that I believed was pertinent. For the record, I am not a coin dealer nor have any affiliation with ICG whatsoever. I do not even own any chips that are slabbed. However, It doesn't mean I wouldn't consider owning or purchasing some in the future. I have been in this hobby for about three years now. I joined SCCC>CC about a year ago. I believed I was in good standing with a paid up to date membership, I was wrong. My check payable in the amount of $12.00 was sent in the mail for renewal on February 20th. One of you questioned if Jim Munding even new me? The answer is yes! I have set-up at one of his shows and was recently asked to set-up at his March 20th show. I buy and sell chips and other Vegas memorabilia. As I stated, I have been in this hobby for about three years now. I do not claim to be any sort of an expert. However, I would claim expertise in a number of other fields of collectibles. For those of you that responded with the issue of slabbing a $5 chip or thought I wanted every chip in the hobby slabbed, I say that was never my issue, and that is ridiculous! However, I do feel when it comes to slabbing high-end chips, something with a value of say $1000 or more (so that narrows the field down pretty quickly), to ME it clearly does make sense. I entered this hobby as a novice. I was taken advantage of pretty early on by a few of your members. They will go nameless, but they know whom they are.
They outright saw $$$ when they saw me coming. I believed they had good intentions. I was sadly mistaken. I was just a new person to peddle their over graded junk on. Many of you know who these individuals are, a few of the members warned me about them, but that was after the fact. Oh well, I'm a Big Boy, I take it in stride. I have no doubt from the compassionate responses to last nights message I delivered many of you are true lovers of this hobby. My issue and the reason for my endorsement in limited circumstances of slabbing is this; I think people have the right to choice. They have the right to rely on something that gives a third opinion. Barry Hauptman asked me a good question. He asked why is ICG hiding who is doing the supposed grading. I think that's a great question! I think if we could agree on a grading company that was fair honest and reliable, it would be a win win for this hobby. I know many of you disagree, that's okay but shouldn't everyone have the option to choose? I made the point in a response I'm surprised you don't say at your shows or conventions, okay, those of you using Chip Rack on the left side of the room, those of you using Campiglia and Wells on the right side. And if you spiral bound Campiglia's 1st edition, you can't even enter the room. If a guy wants to slab a chip and offer it for sale at your convention so what? You don't have to buy it. You don't even have to talk to him. The point is choice. Don't be afraid of it. Don't say it will harm. Be open to it. It could help!