I would like to take a few moments to respond to some of the comments that you have made in the previous message.

First, I am sorry that you misunderstood my point. I was not referring to any feeling that slabbing should not be banned from the convention. You are correct in that it is probably within the rights of the club to ban slabs. However, what do you propose be done if some dealer who is displaying chips for sale happens to pull out a slab on the convention floor. Are you prepared to confront the person and create a scene and perhaps a heated arguement while he/she is bodilly removed from the convention floor. Do you propose that all chip cases and binders being brought in to the convention, to be displayed, be searched to make sure that there are no slabs. My posts, as I said did not relate to the banning of slabs or the ethicacy, legality or whatever about doing so at the convention. I was responding to all the earlier posts over the previous days about people who were talking about boycotting the convention, any shows, and auctions including eBay that does not ban slabs. My point was simply that I believe it is misguided for people to boycott chip shows and auctions in general because slabbers are present. Rene or any other individual or organization, chip related, numismatic etc. who wants to sponsor a show has the right to allow slabbers at their shows. If they do choose to close slabbers out what makes you think that a determined slabbing company say PSA wouldn't put together their own shows to sell slabbed cards, coins and yes, Casino Chips. My point is simply that if our fellow collectors are going to expect that slabbing be eradicated or they will not patronize certain shows, they have already lost their battle in that they have given up a major opportunity to fight. In a free society, as I did say previously and I believe you did acknowledge, "The reality is, there will always be collectors who for their misguided reasons will slab their chips and companies who will gladly accomodate them for a fee." If we pull out and do not attend or sell at a show just because it is not Slab-Free, we are turning our backs on the collectors who might be influenced by our messages and giving up the opportunity to educate them that Slabbing is useless and a waste of money. A collector who does not have an opiinion on slabbing isn't going to care about our claims that it will hurt the hobby. They need to know a.) Why it is harmfull and b.) reasons that they would not benefit from slabbing. The slabbers will be showing them fancy capsuls with grades on them. Telling them that their chips will be protected for eternity and their authenticity will be guaranteed by a fancy hologram. They will be told that buying a slabbed chip on eBay or at a neighborhood coin dealer is of known quality if it has their logo and hologram on it. Who is going to tell the collector that the fancy capsule does not protect their chip any more than the .75 AirTite that they can use. Price then does become an issue when you tell a collector that they can pay PSA, for an example, $8 to $35 to slab the same card, depending on the level of service you request, and probably the same price for a chip. Or you can pay .75 for the same benefit. At least in relation to the protection of the chip.

As for the issue of grading and guarantee of authenticity, as I also pointed out in another post here. Who is going to be there to tell the collector that some dealers and collectors will resubmit their chips, coins, cards, etc. multiple times until they get the grade that they want. Two graders will have differing opinions of a chips quality and, in fact, the same grader might take the same chip and give it two different grades on two different days. If they can be so unsure about quality when grading, the question also exists how can you rely on their guarantee of authenticity. Two graders may authenticate differently. People need to be told that the only real way to authenticate something is if you either have documentation that creates a provenance or if you personally witnessed the acquisition of the item.

In closing, my point was simply that concerned collectors still have to have a presence at these shows to present the anti-slab point of view. If all our concerned chippers boycott then there will be no one there to express the issues that I have mentioned above. I do not profess to know everything on the issue, I am still learning. I learn a lot here on the board but there may be a lot of interested chippers at the shows, convention etc. that do not know about The Chipboard and the Slabfree movement. We have to be where they are to influence. Otherwise another slabber may be born.