"Certified coins offer important safeguards. First and
foremost, they carry grades assigned to them by impartial
experts--informed, independent assessments regarding their
level of preservation--and these provide protection against
overgrading by unscrupulous sellers"

Chips are not coins. They have no reflective surfaces as do coins.

Regarding the "impartial experts" doing the grading ... most reputable coin grading companies are proud to disclose the names of the graders they have working for them and will provide their qualifications readily. When the same questions were posed to the chip grading company who tried to put his nose into this hobby's tent ... we received no response.

Grading companies do not purchase chips. They don't sell chips. They offer no guarantee that the grade they assigned is a correct one. The only thing they are interested in is the collector's money in the form of a fee in exchange for their opinion of what "grade" they think a chip is. The only thing this accomplishes is a dramatic mark up in price to the consumer.