"I still maintain that GRADING is the problem, not slabbing. Putting a chip in plastic does nothing to increase it's value.... ... "cheap chips" Porro

Pete; You are absolutely partially correct! Slabbing and 3rd party grading go hand in hand. The companies that grade are going to slab the items that have been submitted to them for grading simply to prevent tampering and substituting an inferior grade in their tamper-proof holders (slabs).

It is this "3rd party certification" that dramatically adds to the cost of the item. Want further proof ... check out the post regarding most all of *Slabhara Coins' unsold slabbed chips that never received an opening bid on ebay. I would wager that had club members not been as vigilant as they have regarding this abuse in our hobby, by bringing it to the attention of the chip collecting community via the Slab Free Chapter, ... many potential bidders may have fallen for the *Slabhara Coins hype. (*BTW... Thanks to Bob Touts for the appropriate nickname)