Ed,

You are right, it does not pay to slab common, inexpensive chips or coins or baseball cards or whatever. It costs more to slab the item then the item is worth itself. But the slabbers like it because it is more business for them. The reason that they are slabbed is to try and create a new market - slabbed chips - that is somehow supposed to make the chip more valuable than if it were not slabbed. But this logic is wrong. A slabbed chip is no more valuable than a raw chip. A slabbed chip is just a chip that is entombed in plastic. For common, inexpensive casino chips, slabbing does not add any value. So, there is no reason to pay more for a slabbed inexpensive common chip than you would pay for the same chip that is not slabbed.