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steve kInteresting post and enjoyed reading it. Certainly though none of this is new. This has been going on for many years. Just the dollar figures get higher each year. Sports memorabilia has always been a bit shady and probably always will be.
<<< Finally, it is my opinion that the major abuses are in the card grading and autograph authentication area's of this industry and make no mistake this is an industry, not a hobby. >>>
I do have to disagree with your implication of lumping card grading with autographs and memorabilia. There are problems with card grading. There definitely is room for improvement. But overall it works fairly well with the reputable card grading companies. Card grading is only "shady" with the disreputable grading companies. Autographs and memorabilia will always be shady to some degree no matter who does the authentication. As for coa's - You mentioned Joe Dimaggio signing coa's. I don't even trust a coa even if Dimaggio signed it - with absolutely no disrespect at all for Joe - at times I think Joe just wrote or signed anything that was put in front of him from dealers who were paying for his letters or signatures. Probably many other players do the same. Many times autographs and memorabilia are perception rather than reality - especially memorabilia. If you're willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the perception that something is real - if that makes a person happy then so be it. Also - virtually every, if not every hobby has an industry connected to it so there's no big deal there.