In my oppion, there are two seperate portions of "slabbing" an item, one being assigning a grade or state or presevation to the item. While one may agrue that the proposed system that one company is purposing is incorrect, without something else to go on, they have to have a starting point. That various members of the club are now working on such a system is good news, it is only sad that we had to wait for an outside source to spur us to action when many have wanted something, without the slabing part, for a while.

Another, often overlooked feature, is authenication. That is, if an item is what the person claims it to be, or has it been doctured, enhanced, or manuplicate to enhance its value. This is quite common both in the coin, stamp, and paper money hobby, as the prices of certain chips increase, this most likely will happen (if it has not done so already).

Even if you are opposed to slabbing, one simple way to "test" if an expensive item is what the seller claims it to be, offer to purchase the chip and pay the "slabbing" fee IF the item comes back at or above what the seller claims. Works quite well in the coin hobby were alternation of high end material is quite common.

John