Glen; It's no wonder you were taken advantage of as a newbie when you first entered this hobby. It would appear that you still have a lot of basic learning to do after three years in the hobby if you don't know the difference between a slab and an air-tite holder as you inferred in your post. You said that we all grade when we put the chip down for sale in the display case. Wrong! I see a chip, I ask how much... not what is the grade? When I sell a chip, it's either excellent, circulated or worn and it's priced accordingly. ICG want to change all that. They are setting themselves up to be the sole arbitrator of what the grade of a particular chip is. My opinion or anyone else's will mean nothing to you. Your conception is that it must have the ICG stamp of approval before you will purchase. ICG does not guarantee the grade that they have assigned to a particular chip that has been slabbed by their firm. The dealer who is selling this ICG slabbed chip is off the hook, as his out will be, "Hey, I didn't grade that chip .... ICG did.... look at their label"

I see that you continually choose to ignore some of the well-intentioned valuable advice that a few veteran, well-respected chippers have offered to you. That too is your choice. I'll not offer any additional unwanted advice to you other than to say that some of the things that have been posted in an attempt to educate you has met with a stone wall. You asked what my post had to do with anything when I simply referred you to ICG's 11 grades of uncirculated chips. If you don't know the answer to that question ... then I'm afraid we are all wasting our time trying to clue you in.

Do your own thing Glenn. Buy as many slabbed chips as you want. I see by your email address (awallstguy@aol.com) may explain alot of things to folks who can't figure you out. "Slabbing ain't Chippin'... and Chippin' ain't investing" for the majority of us. To us, this is a hobby. If at the end of our collecting years, the value of our collections appreciate... that's just a wonderful bonus... and that's what makes this such an attractive, pleasurable pasttime for most of us. We fear that the introduction of slabs on a level that ICG has in store for us will destroy the hobby as we know it today .... and it will become turned over to the investors and speculators such as yourself.

For your sake, I completely understand why you would want other folks to jump onto the slabbing bandwagon. It's because in the end, to realize your big windfall dream, you will need other uninformed folks to sell your slabbed chips to. I know that you have said that you don't presently own any slabbed chips, but when a few slabs come along that you can't resist purchasing ... try selling that hunk of plastic back to one of the dealers from whom you purchased it and see what they will offer you for it.... then you will know what it is truly worth ... and you will be claiming once again that you've been taken advantage of.

I'm done Glen. Do whatever pleases you. I'll do likewise by not responding to anymore of your challenging posts.... and I've not called you any names in the process.