David, One does not have to be the brightest candle on the cake to see that even the mention of slabing can bring some people blood presure to the high side. Again, before someone comes looking to shoot this newbie to chip collecting, I DO NOT AGREE WITH SLABING OF COLLECTABLES.
One of the biggest reasons being, the uneducated buyer who thinks a slabed item means the opinion of the slaber is better then Gods word. I have seen, inspected, non legit items that were slabed. On the other hand I have seen items that were rejected by a slabing company because they could not 100% say the item was what it was being represented as. A low end 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps baseball card with a slabed grade of 1 (which is the low end) has a value of around $2000. The value climbs rather quickly as the grade increases. A 5 is worth $4000 give or take. A grade of an 8 will bring $15000 + easily, and a 10, the highest you can get brings $80,000 +. It becomes a numbers game when you get to the 8's , 9's, and 10's. There has always been talk that the big name dealers in the hobby get the benifit of the doubt or special treatment. Taking slabed grade 8 card that you bought for $6000 and being able to get it regraded to a 9 makes that card(excuse me)makes that same card that was worth $6000 now worth $15000. All because the number on the slab changed. Thats one of the big reasons I'm totally against slabed items. Now for the other side. John Doe is regarded as one of the brightest persons in the old chip hobby. He opens a grading / slabing service. Good ole me who knows very little about chips for whatever reason wants to purchase a one leg blue goose chip from the closed xyz casino. There are approx. 20 known chips that survived over the years, but there are also some very good fakes out there. John Doe Inc has one of these chips for sale for $4000 in a slab. Mary Smith has one for sale that came from, who knows, and she wants $3750 for her chip. They are in identical condition. If dummy me is buying, I know which one I'd prefer to have. Aqain, before the bullets fly, I'd rather see no slabs, have never in all my years slabed an item, or have any intention of slabing any item