I DO NOT mean to stir up the nest today. I just want to pass along details of a conversation I had over the weekend, and why my perspective on slabbing is beginning to change.

I met a coin collector at a dinner party Saturday night. Someone at the party knew I collected chips and introduced us. The guy was fairly well off, and passionate about coins. Overall, a decent person.

I asked him if he ever looked into chipping, and his response was, in summation, "Yes, but without slabbing, I wouldn't even know where to begin" He said he though the hobby was cool, but that he would never invest any serious money into it, because you only has the word of the seller to go by on the purchase, and that favors the seller, period. This was the perspective of a man who routinely pays 5 figures for a single coin.

Since that conversation, I have thought about the issue a little differently. I have been thinking about what I buy and why. Generally, I buy chips from Nevada that are obsolete and have a graphic that turns me on AND, I will not spend over $300 on a single chip.

I am in a position where I have a little extra discretionary cash, thankfully. I could easily step up and buy more expensive chips, yet I don't. And I really never thought about why until that conversation. The plain truth of the matter is I don't because I don't want to get burned. In my mind, the reason is very similar to why I won't keep over $500 or so in my online poker accounts. I have faith in online poker, but if the shoe ever drops, I will only keep as much in there as won't really bother me if one day I can't access it and it is gone forever. I have faith in most chip dealers, but I hedge the amount I am willing to lose if I don't get what I think I am getting. Also, what if I drop 10k on a chip as an ivestment, only to find out that the chip has been repaired, and the seller was duped when he purchased it? I could never allow for that possibility.

I don't look at my collection solely as an investment, but I don't kid myself either......a day is going to come when either a)they bury me or b) circumstances change and my collection gets sold. While the value of my collection is not that important to me today, someday, it WILL be important to me or someone I love.

In summation, I think this fellow, and I for that matter, would find it easier to dig deeper on a purchase if I had more than the assurance of the person I purchased the chip from. I think I have a handle on the roots of how the hobby got started, and there is an unusually high level of trust among many of the long-time chippers. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the hobby is growing quickly. New blood means more money flows into the hobby, and, prices go up. Unfortunately, the new blood is NOT going to come into the hobby with anything near the kind of trust alot of the old timers have.

I think that thinking the status quo is the way to go for the future is naieve, and sooner or later, we are going to be forced into accepting some sort of universally acceptable grading/confirmation system OR we stay where we are, and kill alot of potential growth.

It is distasteful to me, but the Gods-honest truth is, until I, and people like the guy I spoke with, have access to some type of verification, serious money by newbies won't flow into the hobby. That can't be a good thing.

I mean to stir up thought, not controversy....