Its actually not new. I have alluded to it in the past. The discussion has always centered around banning the sale of slabbed chips at the convention.

I believe that a complete ban on the sale of slabbed chips is like pushing the problem into the basement and pretending it doesn't exist. It doesn't make the problem go away, it just means that we don't have to face it. Eventually though the problem starts to grow in the basement and the odor starts to smell up the whole house.

The slabbing problem needs to be faced and dealt with out in the open. Allowing people to sell slabbed chips at the convention allows collectors to view them and reject them and when collectors decline to buy these slabbed chips we send a clear message to dealers that this is a bad investment. If we ban the sale of slabbed chips, dealers will know only that the club has acted to ban them, not that the vast majority of collectors are unwilling to pay for that crap.

So then the natural question is why am I willing to support a ban on slabbing services (as opposed to slabbed chips).

First and foremost, although last years was the only convention I have attended, I do not recall any table at the convention which had no product for sale. No table acted only to advertise a service.

The presence of a slabbing company at the convention acts primarily as an advertisement for the sale of future services, not for the immediate sale of a service. In fact under ICG's supposedly blind submission system I see no way in which the representatives at the table could possibly accept a chip for slabbing.

That being said i see no reason why the club not act to maximize the available sales space as opposed to advertising space. How disappointed we would all be if we showed up at the convention instead of chips being bought sold and traded we just walked from table to table looking at ads.

Also because the slabbing tables act primarily in an advertising capacity the slabbers will not get a clear cut message associating our distaste for their practices with the lack of sales, because they did not expect to get any immediate sales at the convention.

A chip dealer who brings slabbed chips and doesn't sell many, while unslabbed chips all around him are being sold, will learn that slabbing is a bad investment. He will stop paying for the service not just at convention time but year round.

While hopefully the slabbers will learn the same lesson, they will not be able to associate the lack of sales at the convention immediately with the will of the collectors.

Therefore, allowing the sale of slabbed chips allows us to demonstrate our point that Buyers don't want these chips. (A ban almost suggests that they do want them and the only way to stop slabbing is through a ban). On the other hand allowing the slabbers to set up (and take valuable space from chip dealers does not allow us the same opportunity to send a message.