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Posted By: bcornell

I'll pick one to answer: is grading good for the hobby?

I'd give that a qualified "yes". Grading companies didn't come out of a vacuum - there was a significant amount of fraud that went on in the 80's. When prices escalated, some people realized that taking a pair of scissors (or a knife, etc.) to a card was a quick way to increase a card's value... grading was largely, but not totally, a reaction to this. Grading and graders have their faults, but they have made it less easy to get away with badness.

When I hear people complaining about How Bad Things Are Now, I assume they weren't collecting 15-20 years ago or they'd know better.

Bill