I'm no slab fan, I just automatically think of the Club as a membership group that should protect me as a collector. If the long-term goal of the Club is to grow the hobby, I would think it would be sensitive to fraudulent practices that threaten the membership!

If the Club is just a hobby/social group, then I shouldn't look to that body for help... It would seem that the main pro-active police function the Club wields is that if a member complains about unethical behavior by another member, then that member can be kicked-out of the group. I'd really like to see a more pro-active role on the part of the CC-GTCC; authenticating high-end chips, and better diseminating chip values via an on-line guide (for members only) are two areas that I think could drastically improve the hobby for members!

Instead of building a physical building - I'd prefer to see a more robust "virtual building". Technology can be harnessed in many different ways, to protect and empower collectors; how about a monthly conference call, where suspect chips could be viewed by a group on-line? No slabbing, no grading, just a general thumbs-up or down on a particular chip. Ex: Perhaps you want a chip from a particular dealer - but you insist that he/she present it on-line for the monthly conference call before purchasing it?

One problem with viewing chips on The Chipboard, is that everybody has different scanners, and use various settings. For a monthly conference call to work, the Club would be well-served to support only one type of internet cam. Ideally it would be affordable, easily recognized by PCs & Apples, and be idiot-proof. If everybody participating in a conference call utilized the same internet camera, it would go a long way to standardizing the results... Forgive me if this all is being done already, perhaps I'm just not aware of it?