I've brought this up many times, and always the same response "Chipping is a hobby and keep the investors out."

One of the arguments was always that slabbing takes money out of the hobby as you pay for the service to outside companies. Also, no slabbing company has the expertise on casino chips. The answer... have the CCA as THE organization doing the slabbing (authentication and grading). That would be a revenue stream for the club. Will you keep other companies out? Probably not, but if you want a slab you can trust, use the CCA.

The bottom line is, without something like this, you aren't going to attract investors or people making a business of it. For most collectors I've talked to, that is fine with them. Keeping it a "hobby" and cheap and fun is where they would like it. No problem, but you aren't going to grow. The profit drive increases shows/advertising, which increases collectors, which increases more investors, and so on.

I wrote an article for the CCTN last year (never sent it in) on, in my opinion, the three decisions made by the club in the past to cement the CCA as a hobby "club" and not an "association". Banning slabbing was one of them. I'm not saying it was a wrong decision (I like a fun hobby with cheap chips), but it definitely kept us from growing.

All that said, I would probably argue that the time to do this has likely gone. Chipping was hot and growing 15 years ago. That was the time the CCA made the decisions which way to proceed. The club CLEARLY wanted to keep chipping casual and the CCA as a "collectors club".

For me personally, I like keeping it a hobby. I don't consider my chips an investment, not do I make any money in the hobby.