Noticed the slabbed chip discussion and thought to contribute my two cents worth. Slabbing of coins was an attempt to commoditize the coin market, by allowing people to buy and sell sight unseen, as dealers thought they would increase sales this way. Obviously commoditizing and collecting do not mix well. On the other hand, this was an opportunity for large dealers to standardize prices over their inventory without much effort and to buy and sell in bulk without getting involved in the grading aspect. IMO this is to the disadvantage of the buyer as the buyers are left to the judgement of the various slabbing firms with no common criteria among them, and the slabbing costs add to the price. In the meanwhile, stories of switched coins (alleged to occur at the slabbing firms), misgraded coins (lack of common criteria or other more devious reasons), and re-slabbed coins (owner got a second opinion) tainted the practice as well. I frankly do not know where the issue stands right now, since when I collected coins I was interested in ancient coins, which anyone would be hard put to grade and slab. Perhaps that should tell us something about whether slabbing collectibles has any value associated with it except for protection, which can be attained in other ways. If accumulating solely for investment purposes (coins probably are not the best investment vehicle unless you are a dealer buying at a discount) and slabbing is widely accepted by those you may wish to sell to later on, then who is to say it is wrong (obviously wouldn't work for chips). However, if Collecting for Fun(!) and you enjoy touching your collectibles, slabbing is a probably a bad idea. Slabbed items definitely take up more space as well. I have also always wondered as to how a slabbed item would be evaluated as the slab got worn and scratched and you had difficulty clearly seeing the item inside :) .