David,

How about taking "before" and "after" pictures of the chips that you repair? Those pictures, and the names of your customers, could someday be very important to the hobby.

BTW, personally I'd vote that repaired chips DO hurt the hobby as a whole.

If it were my decision you wouldn't do major repairs or alterations, neither would anyone else. But, it's not my decision, and obviously you don't feel that you're doing anything wrong. So....I appreciate that you're up front about your creations, and are willing to create a paper trail for your repairs.

I'd ask you to take it a step further, to help protect future buyers....when you blend your clay (or whatever you use) to fill a hole, mix an ultraviolet substance with it so the repair can be easily seen with a black light. When you make a new inlay...mark it with a UV substance. At least it could be proved that the chip was repaired.