Am I missing something here? What happened to all of the scorn directed towards Mr. Whalen over the "brass core controversy" and his participation in the repair of chips, both of which everybody acknowledges were/are damaging to our hobby?

I know Mr. Whalen is very up-front and non-apologetic about what he does, but it seems a little odd for so many of the group to be buying and parading his alterations so proudly.

I recognize that no knowledgeable chip collector would mistake these alterations for chips actually manufactured for a casino, but I come back to the same question we ask about altered chips: What happens when these pass out of your hands and into the hands of someone who doesn't know the story of their origin?