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Peter_SpaethThese analogies seem awfully far-fetched.
As to the subject at hand, I don't have any great ideas on how to fix the problem. The nature of the problem is pretty simple and as I see it has three parts: (1) there are people who can do things to paper that grading services (and perhaps even the cognoscenti on this board) cannot, or do not have the time or resources, to detect; (2) it is hugely profitable; and (3) noone who knows the culprits is likely to rat them out in a meaningful way, either for fear of reprisal, or reluctance to get involved, or because they are part of the system.
There is some logic to Paul's (T206collector) approach, if I understand it correctly and forgive me if I am misstating it. If you can't tell, and a grading service can't tell, then don't worry about it.
That approach, however, for a variety of reasons, is not going to be satisfactory to many people. So how to change behavior?
My belief is that ultimately the only thing that might really make a difference is a government investigation (or perhaps private litigation), as happened I believe in the autograph segment. I have no idea how likely it is that any prosecutor would be sufficiently interested to take that investigation on. Private litigation poses a variety of challenges as well, although it would not be impossible.
Short of that, I think continued dialogue with the grading services (along the lines proposed by Dave Forman) would be very helpful. I would like to know a lot more about their operations and what they are doing to keep on top of detection, for example, and would also like to know how much time is spent reviewing cards, whether all cards are examined under a blacklight, and so on and so forth. Maybe there should be tiers depending on the level of scrutiny you want your card to go through. I don't know, just some thoughts.
Also, I think it would be very helpful if some of the esteemed members of this Board, including those so contemptuous of Jim's effort, shared their knowledge on how to spot alterations in some sort of comprehensive organized way. I recognize the internet is not the best medium for this, but I still think there is value there.
Without intending any offense to anyone, I am a bit skeptical at this point of the utility of Codes of Ethics etc. unless there is some meaningful way to detect and punish violations, and I see significant issues as to both.