Hiya Anita, thanks for your post and welcome to TheChipBoard. Upfront, I'll tell you I'm not an unbiased chip collector but I urge you to learn what you can of the subject of slabbing and give it serious thought. A slabbed chip is a chip that has been submitted to a commercial grading company. For a fee, the grading company, examines the chip and assigns it a grade that, in their opinion, reflects the quality of condition and authenticity. The chip is then encapsulated in a tamper-resistant see-through device known as a "slab". In other hobbies, coin-collecting and sports cards, slabbing is touted as a method of bringing uniformity to hobbies concerned about misrepresentation, alteration and fakes. Chip collecting has been free of slabbed collector items but at least one commercial grading company has expressed interest in grading chips for fee. This is viewed by many chip collectors as an event that would substantially change the hobby. A very important topic in the hobby presently and I invite you to try to be informed on the subject by following the discussion here on this board and the board at www.CCGTCC.com and please stop by a site I support at www.slabfree.com