The grading argument does annoy me as well mainly because it devides the collecting community and I feel collectors who don't like grading judge collectors who do and put them in the same bracket that all grading collectors only collect the labels. This is true for a lot but not all.
The Toy Toni thing makes me laugh as well, origional parts all assembled together and the grading company's should have known this before any of the collecting experts did. Your just sending your stuff to other human's who make mistakes, not a supreme being. How they missed the v iron marks at the bottom of the bubble seal is a shocker.
It's funny as well when a graded item gets damaged and that is automatically because it's graded that it got damaged, items never ever got damaged before grading was invented? I buy ungraded, graded and I send stuff to be graded and in my experience items that aren't graded are more prone to being damaged. How many items have been saved from damage because they are graded?, know-one knows because they don't get damaged! :lol:
Grading has inflated prices, but that's down to dealers as well insisting that an item with a high grade is worth 3 times what it was before grading and collectors pay it! Grading has certainly attracted new collectors with limited knowledge but unlimited resources which is a real shame for the hobby. Also if you use UKG or AFA to search for stuff on eBay you don't have to sift through half as much crap stuff.
All that said the company that still u grades should obviously have stopped a long time ago although the damage has already been done it would Still be a positive step if they stopped. I see the grading company's as an option that improves the way collections can be displayed and help collectors learn what they have. The grading is bollocks but you get a rough idea what condition the item your buying is in. It's by no means the be all and end all of my collection and not all my MOC's are graded and their is room for improvement especially with AFA, that's an understatement! It's just a shame how people exploit grading, but it's human nature I guess.