When you use a third party to grade or authenticate an item and they place them in a 'slab' it is a slab. Grading companies will slab anything without a grade only a authentication of being real. Now if you break it out and sell them 'raw' you would never know they were ever slabbed. Now if the anti slabbing pledge is only for graded chips in slabs then that is news to me. I have always felt on very high end chips and the equipment they have to xray coins they could tell if a chip has been repaired and thus authenticate them as being original.not altered but they have to slab them. If it is ever proven that what they put on a slab is wrong the better companies stand by their opion and will buy the item back.