Posted By:
MWLeon,
Your comparison between authentication of memorabilia and grading of cards is not a good one. Grading, no matter how well defined the parameters are, always involves a certain amount of subjectivity. Authentication, in this particular case, does not. Either the bat is authentic or it's not. Perhaps a comparison of authentication (but not wholesale grading) of cards to authentication of memorabilia would have been more meaningful.
Although, come to think of it, a comparison of a trimmed or altered card to the autograph and inscription on this bat might very well be ideal, since both were done in an effort to deceive the collector and inflate the value. I can't write the word "gamer" in Japanese and I'm willing to bet Ichiro couldn't write it in English at the beginning of the season.
Try not to think only about the bogus Ichiro bat...think about the methodology. It's not the mistake, it's the manner in which it was made that's important here.