I don't mind a wee bit of dirt, but I'd rather have a cleaned chip than one that looks like a lab specimen. Why clean them? 'Cuz I like them that way, thats why.

When I look at a cleaned, well-worn chip, I am NOT thinking, "who are they trying to fool with that?" I think the cleaned chip is a better representation of what it IS.

And IMHO, most any novice collector would know the difference in value between a well-worn clean chip and a SU dirty one.

It is a matter of taste. If you don't want to buy my cleaned chip, that is OK, but Jay's original point is spot on......take two identical chips, one cleaned, one not, the cleaned one will generally sell higher.