I have been away from the board and the hobby for a while now dealing with some personal issues and was very disappointed to read the board for the first time again and see so many issues.

I would like to address each of them separately with my opinions on the subjects.

On the Slabbing topic, let me first say I was never a member of the anti-slabbing group although I understand their stance.

Personally I am not a fan of slabbing but on the flip side, I am also not as against it as many members are.

Some valid points were discussed on both sides both recently as well as over the years.

As many of you know, before my addiction to casino collectibles, I was a Sports Card dealer and collector for many years so I have seen the hobby both pre and post slabbing.

While I personally have never bought or sold a slabbed card, there is no denying that it is a large part of the current hobby.

I do however take exception to the comment that “Slabbing saved the hobby”

Those that think that obviously haven’t been to a card show recently as they are a shell of what they used to be 20+ years ago. I would conservatively estimate that card collectors are around 25-30% of what there were in the healthy years.

Card collecting has faced many of the same challenges that we see in our own hobby.
Lack of new collectors, card companies greed and a collectible that produces way more collectible cards than there are collectors.
Also just like in our own hobby the newer issues are really worth very little while the older rarer items have remained in high demand.

While I believe that slabbing May have played a part in keeping the hobby alive, I also believe there were a lot of other factors that played a more important role.

Not sure how many people remember years ago when we had a slabbing company at the convention?

It did not go over very well and they never returned due to lack of interest.

Many people in our hobby feel strongly about slabbing and I seriously doubt it will ever take a foothold in our hobby like it did in coins and cards.

With all the being said, I am not completely against slabbing. Maybe this would work with higher end chips? maybe it won’t.

Slabbing itself brings a whole new set of issues as well. Who will do the grading? Are there new collectors hat will even buy a slabbed chip? Will we disenfranchise all the current members who are anti slabbing?

Now I don’t want anyone to take this post as a pro slabbing opinion and I personally won’t be buying or selling them. In fact I don’t even support he idea at all but as I have said numerous times before, all ideas deserve to be looked into and discussed.

Thanks for listening to my thoughts.