>> The chips in question do not seem to meet the definition anymore than a set of KISS chips placed in a case by the Palms and sold as a set.

You are mistaken about this. The very purpose of having NGC authenticate the chips and place them in a tamper proof container (by tamper proof I mean that any tampering would be evident) is the difference.

I see no reason why the term grading can not refer to grading the authenticity of a chip. During the earlier bout with slabbing most of us were focused on grading consition, but I know that in many of my writings on the subject I refered to guarantees of authenticity and I see that Charles Kaplan refered to it in his post at the SlabFree website.

Admittedly I have much less objection to slabbing which guarantees authenticity than I do slabbing that guarantees condition. But I am concerned that this is just a start, and that if NGC finds this venture profitable they may consider expanding further into our hobby.