Forgetting for the moment the issue of whether GU cards should be made:
The GU items will always have some casual appeal, especially those made from items from contemporary players who are likely to make autograph appearances later on. The certified autographed will always have appeal to autograph collectors. Yes, there are bad ones--surprise, surprise, bad autographs. But the vast majority of the signed stuff is good. Players' autographs will always have appeal and a market, and signatures certified by a major MFG as real will always have buyers.
That said, the long term value prospects are crappy IMO. Very few of the cards have had great price gains year over year. They seem to peak the year of issue then plateau or even start to decline as the issue loses its cachet. Take the 1997 Topps Jeter autographed card as an example. Great looking card, nice signature, sure-fire HOFer and Yankee. I pulled one from a pack in 1997. The card price hasn't budged since then--I saw two for sale this a.m. on Ebay for BINS of $125 and $195. As I recall, they were selling for about $150 during the late 1990s. And the manufacturers keep adding more to the supply of GU and auto'd cards. All you need do is look at the bins and bins of them at the National offered on the cheap to know they are not a good investment.
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