I am not saying that you should trust anyone in particular, ICG, but a lot of people do not know ANY experts, and one can not always trust a seller.

The ANA (of which we are a member) used to provide an authenication services (for a fee - and a grade was not part of the process) but I am unsure of if they still offer this anymore.

Perhaps our club could "appoint" a few "experts" to offer an opion, with the fee paying for postage, insurance, and a small amount that would go towards eduction.

However, for the most part, the companies that provide a "slabbing" service target those who are not normally a part of any organized collecting group.

That is one of the problem about proposed "bans" to having slabbed items at the show as it is a good exposure to those who are not members of our club. If they pay to get in (were we then have a chance to perhaps make them members by not only pointing out the money they would save by being a memeber, but also the information that is available that is worth far more then the cost of membership) but they do not see any items like what they currently collect, they will be less inclinded to join.

A small example is if you check the number of paid memebers that belong to the ANA as opposed to the paid subscribtion of say Coin World (a weekly publication) you will see that there is a three to one difference between the two, with the ANA on the lossing end.

If we have say 3,000 active members, then there are perhaps as many as three times that number (9,000 or more) who collect casino items that for some reason have not or do not want to join our organization. I am not so worried about the 3,000 who are members as I feel that they either presently have enough information or access to be able to ascertain the status of an item, it is the other potential 6,000+ that I worry about.

Cheers

John