At some point, your chips will leave your possession (hopefully not for a very long time, but eventually). Even assuming the original seller and buyer knows what you did, what about the next, or the next? And what if just one along the line is not so scrupulous? The fact is an alteration is an alteration, and is ripe for abuse or unknowingly being sold as unaltered at some point, even if your intentions are pure.

Michael Siskin