Glenn,

The basis for third party grading is, one or more experts will examine an item, and grade it. The expert grader must not have an active interest in the class of items he or she grades. They cannot be collectors of the items they are grading, otherwise there would be a conflict of interest.

The only people on the planet that can be considered experts in casino chips are collectors. Every damn one of them. The grading companies cannot stand behind anything that would come from them, because the people they employ are not qualified experts in this field. This was apparent when these folks first attempted to enter this hobby, the most blatant example of their ignorance of what they were doing was rejecting chips for grading because they had been cleaned. They didn't know chips aren't coins, and if their "experts" missed such a basic fundamental difference between the two hobbies, they certainly couldn't be trusted to provide the service you think they might.

You could be lazy and have someone tell you what you're interested in buying is, someone who is not likely to know as much the members of the and many participants of this BB, or you could do your own research, ask questions, and when in doubt, only deal with club members.

Bob