It's true, but not new. That shit has been happening for the past 20ish years, when the collectable market started to heat up in the early 2000s. I think the biggest thing that has changed is people are much more aware of it. That is one reason why a lot of celebs or whatever won't just do generic signatures on merchandise stuff anymore (or if they do they charge a bunch for it), they'll just do customized ones addressed to the person asking for the signature