by a guy that paid his dues, had a chip made with his membership number on it and proceeded to separate some nice people from their money...happens all of the time...lots of con men in this world. What is the supposed to do...background checks prior to acceptance?? The club can't be responsible for what its members do.

You said that this hobby is full of deception...I don't know this to be true, but you've been a member longer and may have more knowledge about that stuff than I do. David Sarles (on his own) just ended an auction for what was originally a high $$$ chip. He then posted that there were a bunch of these found at what I am sure was a big loss to him. To me, that's integrity -- not deception.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I just didn't understand that point that you were trying to make (in my opinion, these type of discussions really are beneficial, so long as they don't degrade into name calling). Okay, Scott, let me ask you this -- if there was a $1,000 chip that you just had to have, what would you rather do...trust the word of some anonymous grader on an encased chip or would you rather put that chip in your hand to look at the cross-hatching and verify that it stands on edge and notice that the inlay is lifting just a bit on one side...? Okay...maybe it's been graded / slabbed by someone that you respect in the hobby and as your counting out hundred dollar bills into the palm of my hand to buy this slabbed chip, the grader walks by and yells "Did you sell that chip yet?". I say yes and he yells back "Great...YOU'RE buying dinner tonight!!" and walks away laughing...how does that make your stomach feel??

As I've said before, I don't buy and don't have any high dollar chip except one...but I'd rather trust my own judgment (most of the time at least...)...wouldn't you?? And if I had a question, I'd take the chip to a fellow chipper that I knew and did trust for his opinion...but in all cases, it would have to be in my / his hand for examination.

I can see both sides of this slabbing issue, but for me it would just make me feel better my way versus being slabbed. Steve B

Now with regards to the LE's being slabbed or slabbing a $1 house chip and it costing me $10 to buy it and have it shipped -- this whole concept baffles me. Are there that many stupid people in this world that would pay those prices? I dunno...I can't figure that one out.