David and all,

Slabing has been going on for years in the sports card hobby. The same discussions have gone on there for about 7 years now if memory serves me right. That industry has a number of people / companies slabing cards. It has 2 or maybe 3 that carry some degree of respect as to the QUALITY of service they provide. It has 10 fold that number that are of question in their ability and quality. One thing, that you should find, is that it is possible to open the case without doing damage to the product.((The 2nd thing you will find when opening slabs is "PRATICE MAKES PERFECT" The case should not survive this ordeal, to the point where it can be reused. I like the no slab concept. Having dealt in sports cards for 15 years, I've seen the good side and the bad side of slabing, and prefer to be on the no slab side. Feel pretty fortunate to have released a few of the modern day Holy Grail of the sprotscard world (52 topps Mickey Mantle # 311) from it's confined vault. The one good point about them being slabed, was they came from one of the higher repsected places and the chance of them being a 5K fake were pretty slim. I could see where a collector of chips could have some confort in purchasing a HIGH $$$ chip, "IF" the place that slabed it had high knowledge of the product.