Ah, yessss, I remember it as if it were yesterday... (cue TV "fade back in time music")

I remember at least two posts to TCB back in the days when we repelled the repellant slabbers. Both were quite remarkable in their simularities (and utter lack of respect for the deductive reasoning of chippers!). These posters were new to our hobby and golly, after their experiences, they couldn't understand why we didn't embrace slabbing as the salvation slabbing had offered as the redemption of other hobbies. These unknown tyro chippers were just what every hobby desired... why they were after $1000 chips and they, by inference, were gonna buy your chip and my chip for Big Bucks!!! But wouldn't you know it, their very first chip purchase was a bummer that soured them on chip collecting and only if'n there had been the White Knights entombing chips in "tamper-proof" encapsulation with guarenteed and unknowable expertise put into a !Grade! !Number! they and all their other $1000 chip buying brothers would be making all us quaint slabless chip collecting gnomes rich!

The scummy scam posts went like this: New $$$ Guy wants into the hobby and buys a very nice chip from one of "our" dealers for one or two $K. One of these claimed purchases was of a 1932 Nevada Gaming Promotion chip, the first chip pictured under Reno in Campiglia/Wells. When the unfortunate buyer got the chip from one of "our" dealers, whom he had trusted because the buyer was used to the integrity of slabbed collectable hobbies, he found that the chip was, well, you know, like old and used. Like one of those Van Gogh paintings with brushstrokes and stuff.

Of course we patiently explained to him when there are only a very few examples of a chip, price had more to do with scarcity than condition and that the hobby revered the historical nature of chips as much other factors. We also pointed out that tomorrow a thousand of any one chip could be found and then everyone could have one and everyone would enjoy having one of these nifty chips and that was one of the things that made the hobby so much fun!

About five days later a post with the same DNA showed up. Different chip and different bad guy chip dealer. Guess those slabber guys figured we were just as gullible as their client/victims in other collectable hobbies. Thought we'd believe them bad ol' dealers were well... bad ol' dealers. Probably think we couldn't smell a sack of slab when someone told us no shortage of pledge signers were buying from Henry Garrett. The slab industry leaves a trail doesn't it?