It was too bad that the clock had run out at 10 a.m. when this very informative seminar had concluded. There were many hands in the air at 10 a.m. from club members who hadn't spoken on this issue and who had unanswered questions they were seeking answers to and were not given an opportunity to present the issues due to time restrictions.

I too thought that Ken Hallenbeck's 30+ minute opening monolog was way too long and that a portion of his time would have been better allocated towards more audience participation at the end. I thought that all of the participants on the dias and in the audience were cordial and respectable in their comments and conduct towards each other. There were no heated exchanges. No name-calling. Moderator Knapp tried to be as impartial as possible; given the time restraints he was burdened by. The "radical" label that has tried to be affixed to SlabFree by those not in agreement with the slab-free movement is unfortunate. It would appear that the pro-slab or free-choice crowd chose not to offer their opinions during this presentation, but continues to denigrate those who do express themselves openly with their personal freedom of speech guarantees by opposing slabbing. I've not heard one person in the slab free movement deny the right of anyone to submit their chips to be graded and slabbed by a third party. All that Slab-Free is attempting to do is to educate those to the pit-falls of what our beloved hobby may turn into should slabbing seriously take a strong hold as it has in the coin hobby. If you doubt what I've said, I invite you to attend a large regional or national coin show and look around at the dealer's tables. If that is what you would like to see at the 2002 chip convention, then by all means, support the slabbing of chips and you will surely receive what you are asking for.

Slab-free's voice in Jim Reilly was very effective in this seminar which more folks should have attended. Jim did not allow the 3-1 opposition deter his well reasoned calm responses to his three opponents. I use the term "opponents" not in the sense that CT and Ken Hallenbeck were pro-slab, but that they certainly were not pro Slab-Free. Jim Reilly did a superb job with the deck stacked so heavily against him and he represented our postion clearly and in a professional thought-provoking manner.

Two thoughts I wanted to advance at the seminar, but did not get the opportunity to do so were;

1. There was no organized objection to slabbing when it was introduced into the coin hobby. The prime reason being was that A.N.A. was the primier supporter of authenticating and grading coins and it was ANA that had introduced slabbing into the coin hobby. They could not very well turn around and object to a procedure that they themselves had introduced into their own organization. Slabbing fees also supplied tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, into the ANA Treasury. As former ANA President Hallenbeck had explained, counterfieting was a serious problem in the coin hobby at the time. It was coin authentication that was ANA's prime concern.... slabbing was secondary... but the cash cow became very important to ANA. As more and more of ANA's authenticators were raided by 3rd party grading firms and slabbing became so profitable, ANA sold their slabbing "business" to one of their largest competitors. Also not mentioned by former ANA President Ken Hallenback was the common practice at that time of "whizzing".... a whole new subject for discussion that I won't go to in this post.

Secondly; the Collector's Universe spokeman, whose slabbing background he himself admitted was in the sports card "industry", had no organized opposition from the card hobby at the time card slabbing was introduced..... because there was, and still is, no comparable collectors group in the baseball card hobby that currently exists ... as there is in the very influential and quite vocal chip hobby under CCGTCC.

As one audience member had astutely commented from the floor; if Collectors Universe had been the first slabbing company to be introduced into the chip hobby, things may have become very different.... possibly even met with substantial support. ICG had done a terrible public relations job. My impression after this seminar was that Collectors Universe was truly on a fact finding mission as their prime purpose for attending the club's 9th annual convention and was seeking our input and testing the waters. Unlike ICG's approach who more or less claimed, "here we are... get used to it... we know more than you do"....; Collectors Universe gave a more professional presentation and seemed to agree with Slab-Free's position that a 70 point grading system simply would not work with chips.

Just my refections on just one aspect of a very informative and enjoyable fun convention.... the best ever. For those of you who missed it, there is always next year. Perhaps by then, we will not be distracted by the slabbing issue and we can focus on keeping the hobby plain and simple and not changing what we presently enjoy into an "industry". Until then, we must remain vigilant (not militant).

Hope to see many of you in Tunica where the Slab Free Chapter will once again staff a table to educate all collectors who would like to discuss the real issues in a rational manner.