Posted By:
Al C.risafulliJeez, I must be on a different planet. I've not heard any increase in stories of "counterfeits, fakes, or reprinted cards" making their way into slabs from either legitimate grading company. I saw a '38 Goudey common reprint in a BVG holder once a few years ago. That's about it.
Personally, I believe that it is the grading company's job to grade cards. Given the fact that several million cards a year are submitted to them, I think they do a fine job. Once in a while we see a blatant error, and occasionally we see an obvious alteration in a slab. Of course we don't see is the amount of cards that get rejected (the grading company makes money whether they reject the card or not), we don't see the dollars they invest in improvements or technology, and we don't see most of the cards that are graded accurately - mostly because it's way cooler to post an obvious mistake on a message board than it is to say "Hey, look at my perfectly-graded 1979 Stan Papi."
The only issue I have with grading is the degree to which some people depend on grading companies to take the place of actually having to possess real knowledge about the cards they spend money on.
-Al