Greg Birdsell posted the following;

"we need experts, quite frankly like you,and i could think of a few others, that are known as honest and interested in the hobby first and protecting the integrity of same. also, maybe a different kind of slab, one than can be opened but with a seal that would tell future owners that the seal was broken. this way a guy like me could have a high end chip authenticated, all i care about, and then opened if i wanted."

Greg ... in an earlier post you said that you've been reading this board daily for the past several years. I seriously doubt that because if you had you would not have made the above statement.

First of all, a slabbing technician ... or whatever they call themselves, has to divest themselves of any personal interest in chips in order to deliver an unbiased 3rd party opinion. Who among us would be willing to do that? Have you spoken to Gene or any of those other "experts" you feel would be qualified about divesting themselves of any conflict of interests?

Secondly, the whole purpose of a slab is to insure the integrity of the contents inside that would prevent the slab from being opened ... and not whenever someone wished to open it; seal or no seal. Once you have cracked open the sealed case, any assurance that the contents have not been tampered with has gone out the window.

Lastly ... grade ... which you don't care about since you've stated all you care about is authentication. Grading is also an integral part of slabbing. Without the grade, you do not have a slab ... and if you want the flexibility of being able to open the slab any time you feel like it ... you've just defeated your whole argument about the merits of slabbing in the first place.

You might as well simply put your chips in airtite holders since you don't care about the grade. That way you can submit them to your own "honest experts interested in the hobby" for authentication and open up the cases any time you wish.