I spent a good 15-20 years buying, selling and collecting baseball cards. I paid for most of my college education selling baseball cards in the late 80's - early 90's. I have personally seen "slabbing" by PSA, Beckett, and other companies almost single-handledly destroy an entire hobby.

I have been collecting casino chips for the last 6 months. After I sold my entire baseball card collection, I have been looking for something to "collect". Something I can hand down to my children, after I leave this earth. Since I love poker and Las Vegas, collecting casino chips was an obvious choice.

One of the things that initially brought me to the hobby is that it is very inexpensive for beginners to collect chips. Slabbing chips, like it did with baseball cards, would increase the prices of some of the less expensive chip many times.

I have seen many baseball cards that "book" for less than $1, get slabbed and given a grade of "Nr Mint" or "NrMint/Mint", or "Mint", or "Gem Mint" (you get the picture), and all of a sudden that $1 card has a new price tag of $20.

Besides that, part of the allure of this hobby is the "feel" of poker chips. You can actually hold a chip and think of all the table action and history that it has seen. this is another wonderful thing about collecting chips. I know this probably sound pretty corny, but many chip collectors knows what I am talking about. Slabbing chips in a sterile, hermetically-sealed holder, takes away some of the mysticism and allure of the chips.

I know most of the members on the Board have been collecting chips for many, many years. Obviously, this issue has been a hot topic here for awhile. I just thought I would give the opinion of someone who is a "newbie" to this hobby..