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honus3415What protects grading companies from liability for their "opinions" is, that for the most part, they don't sell the cards they grade. A grade is basically an "opinion". An "opinion" that can be right or wrong.
What I foresee happening sometime in the not to distant future is a lawsuit against a major auction house that advertises an item as slabbed near mint which is in fact a slabbed trimmed/altered item (Honus Wagner T206). I think it may be found through our legal system that resellers of holdered items that regurgitate grades as "fact" are responsible for that item's quality indeed being accurate (to the best of their ability) as via providing a second opinion supporting that graded item. And who better to have an ability equal to or better than our revered graders than those experts at auction houses.
This would likely lead to one of two things. Either a new company will emerge whose grading would be completely automated thus eliminating today's human error and possibly biased opinions. Or all cards sold through a public forum will need to be sold raw or considered as such. Leaving the new owner to submit it for grading if they so desire.
At some point the greed at the top of the pyramid is going to demand it is getting it's money's worth. If it's sold as a gold bar it better be solid gold and not just gold plated.
Many high dollar cards are even now getting into a marketplace where there are few buyers. These people can only be so stupid for so long as to not want a second opinion on a $5,000...$10,000...$100,000...$1,000.000+ "high grade" investment item.
Soon someone is going to get hung out to dry and take a huge financial hit and then the dominos will likely start falling.
Honustradamas