It has been an interesting evolution w/r/t postwar cards. When slabbing started 8 seemed to be the magic number for postwar cards. 6s and 7s were still collectible and did OK but 8s were the cards people went nutty for. 9 and 10 were so hard to find that they demanded premiums but little attention. As the populations rose, though, the hype shifted over to 9s and 10s. 8s lost some of their heat and 7s had stagnated for quite some time before the Great Recession; 6s and below had fallen off the radar. I was picking up nice 6s and 7s at $5 each at the National over the last few years. Now you can barely get that for the cards of the 70s.
Personally, I decided long ago to stay away from the 8-9-10 area, primarily because I saw too little difference in eye appeal to justify the $$ premium. I downgraded my postwar 8s and 9s to 6s and 7s and used the extra bux to buy more cards. That hasn't changed for me, although over the last two years I have gradually shifted from buying graded cards at all to "dumpster diving" at major shows in bins of raw cards for nice raw cards of the postwar era. A lot easier to collect (physically, that is) and a heck of a lot cheaper too.
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