I must admit I have been amazed at the response to the certification and grading of casino chips. I am surprised by the amount of hypocrisy involved from the anti-slabbers. They have stated many times that this will be the downfall of their "hobby". When a chip dealer rents a table at a show he incurs cost. When he makes travel arrangements he incurs cost. When he stays at a hotel he incurs costs. He also hopes that he can recoup these costs by selling enough material at the show to cover his expenses. This is called gross profit. Over time it has been in the business owners best interest to find new ways to increase gross profits. I have been handling chips for about eight years. In this time I have acquired over 30,000 chips. Some are rare some are hard to find and some are common. Over the 22 years that I have been in the rare coin and bullion biz I have sold approximately $77,000,000.00 in coins and bullion. I have built quite the customer base for rare coins. As customers would come into our stores and choose their next rare coin acquisition they would be drawn to the chip display and would occasionally ask questions about them. I would take the time to answer their questions and would sell one or two to them almost as a lark. They liked the idea of collecting chips from the old Las Vegas era but when it came time to spring for more than a couple of hundred dollars they tended to shy away. I then approached one of the grading companies to ask if they would be interested in holdering casino chips. They investigated the market and found that they would be of use to the investor/collector (not to the collector). Or the straight investor and started certifying chips. From the beginning this was brought about by the want of our customers who wanted to spend a thousand dollars or more on a chip but wanted to have some type of third party input to make them feel more comfortable. Many of our clients now have very cool chips to go along with their coin and currency collections.

When I send in a chip to be certified I do not add the cost to the chip. This is a cost of doing business for us and will always be true. I do, however, consider the cost of slabbing when I decide whether or not to have a chip certified.

You say that the cost of chips will increase over time and make this a business rather than a hobby. I say this in response: I have watched for years as the big boys in your group have worked toward hoarding new issues from casinos. I also see you buy from this same person (at a higher than face value price. sometimes 5 times face or higher). I guess this practice is "hobbying" and is not business. No need to jump the gun here and start a new anti-hoarding chapter( even though this would instantly stop this practice if everyone said they would not do business in any way, shape or form with someone who practiced this type of behavior). Another example of a new chapter you might want to consider is the "Don't tell anyone I just bought 5 boxes of this one-of-a-kind chip" chapter. I see this happen 5 times a year on the average. Who do you think is being hurt by these practices?

In any collector field their are 3 kinds of buyers. your "hobby is no different. they are as follows:

(1) THE COLLECTOR

This is the purist. He/She collects for the pure fun of it. Usually has a area of expertise and sticks to it until it has been completed (which is almost never is). Constantly carrying around a want list and a few chips to trade. If someone offered them every chip on their want list at once they would pass. Why? Because that is too easy! they live for the hunt. Cost does not matter. Adding to their collection is all that matters. The most important aspect of this type of collector is that they have absolutely no worries about what their collection will ever be worth monetarily. They simply do not care. This type of collector comprises only about 5% of the base for collectors.

(2) THE COLLECTOR/INVESTOR

This is the largest group of the collector base and encompasses 90% of the overall group. Their traits are: Basically the same as the "Collector" but with one very important distinction. They always have in the back of their mind that someday their collection may be worth more than they paid for it. This group is this most effected by market swing, hoards, market manipulation in any form. If the market goes in a downward spiral they stop buying chips and look elsewhere for the adrenaline rush of finding that one key for their collection. Buyers in this group tend to be more sophisticated than in the previous group. They monitor the market more closely. They look for ways to protect their investments. They sometimes want to call themselves pure collectors but the are not and sometimes find this hard to admit. They hold themselves out to be pure "Hobbyists" but of course when you buy something for $5 and sell it for $15 within a week, you are a business unto yourself whether you believe it or not.

(3) THE INVESTOR

This is the person who calls you up as a dealer and says: I am sending you a check for $50,000.00 send me a box of stuff. He then salts it away for 10 years and pulls it out to sell it hoping for a strong return on his investment. He will get the box and may or may not take a cursory glance at the contents, He really does not care what is in it. He likes the way you have treated his friends and associates or Mother or Father and therefore buys from you based on your reputation not your product.

"Every saddle has a butt that fits it perfect"

Who said this?, I don't know but I do know that there is a place in everyone of these areas for grading and encapsulation of chips just as there is a place in these areas for raw chips. A few case in points:

As a "collector" it would be a shame to work your way up to the top of your want list just to find that the two best chips in your collection were counterfeits.

As a Collector/Investor it would be nice after 5 years of grading to have a population report that would prove that there were actually 67 in all grades of a particular chip graded that everyone swears that they have the only 5 known to exist. (this was a real problem back in the old days of coin collecting) People would buy a coin they thought was 1 of 20 when in actuality it was one of 2000 making it worth $500 instead of $8000.00. Ouch. If you think this does not happen in your chip collecting you are simply naive. Population reports are not the definitive answer but they are helpful in our business and are used on a daily basis.

As a Investor you need protection from fraud and ease of marketability. When my customer takes the $100 white Flamingo out of his box 10 years from now he will most likely offer it to me first. What if I have retired by then. He can now pick up the phone and sell it to a dealer in Tampa simply by telling him that it is in a "MS65" holder and the pop report shows that after 10 years of grading there have only been 2 others graded as new and this is the highest grade known. The serious collector will pay real money for this chip "sight unseen" and feel comfortable with the legitimacy of his acquired chip. He does not have the time to become an expert in this area that he likes so much. He want to depend on someone else to do this for him and put him at ease.

What slabbing is not for:

It is not for the collector of newly issued chips that come directly from the Casino. Nor is it for low to medium value chips. Nor is it for the collector who wants to feel the cigarette burn that lends the chip so much character. Simply put, it is not for everyone. Neither is anything else for that matter.

I have had many private e-mails from collectors who are members of both the club and it's new slabfree chapter who have said if they want to buy a chip from me they will. If it is slabbed and they simply do not collect this way, we will gladly take the chip out of the holder by cracking it out. I do not say to them "you have to keep it in the holder or I will not do any business with you again" I simply let them do as they wish. I know of members who have several of my rarer chips in their collection who have cracked it out right here in my store and then placed it in their books. At the last show I noticed 4 Chips that were once in slabs in my store that were not in flips being offered for sale. I hope that those on the list didn't buy one. I guess that would be like a vegetarian getting a veggie burger with meat in it.

All of this is pretty senseless. Sometimes people just need a cause, any cause, to give them a reason to live. Something they can sink their teeth into and never let go. You can't rationalize with them because to change their position would mean they would have to leave the clubhouse and all of the other club members would look down on them somehow. Everyone wants to belong. When a congressman moves from one party to the next I can only imagine the sorrow he feels. He has decided that he can no longer go along with his clubs beliefs. He has seen the proverbial light. He now must leave all his old buddies behind and try to find new buddies. Wow!, just stop and think how hard this must be. Many never make this move but stay on at the club even though they no longer agree with the club charter. They simply are followers and not leaders. They are the ones at the back of the mob that you always see in the movies. They have that glazed look in their eyes, wondering if they should really be there or not. Trying desperately to remember why they ever thought this was a good idea in the first place. Thinking that if they had thought it through a bit longer in the beginning it never would have gotten this far, but here they are, stuck. Stuck right next to their best friend, the one that said come on lets fight this (he has always been right in the past) but even he is starting to get that look.......

Sometimes I ramble. I am not telling you to accept slabbing. I am simply saying that their are some of us who find a need for it in a corner of chip collecting. If I am out driving in the desert and I stop on the side of the road to help someone with a flat and it turns out to be your wife and kids I hope it's ok with you if I get them out of the 110 degree heat and back on there way, Safely. Of course I could never be your friend but It would be ok for me to save your family. Hypocracy is a terrible thing.

Mark Scott
Sahara Coins, LLC
Summerlin Rare Coin Center, LLC
Saharacoins.com