--Romantic vs. Pragmatic--
I've always collected ungraded cards.
I love the sense of antiquity that comes with touching them, they're sometimes a better bargain, and I've found that being able to flip through the pages of my T206 collection is really a pleasure.
Even so, I've accumulated a hundred or so graded T206's while collecting the set. I cracked open dozens of Authentic and Poor slabs [and it felt good, too!], figuring there wasn't much, if any, money lost in liberating those, and because in many cases the grades didn't do justice to the cards. My practical side doesn't like losing money, though, so I didn't crack the 2's and better. I'll be selling/trading those off as I'm presently in the process of replacing them with ungraded cards.
In the end, of course, it's to each his own. If I collected Mint cards, I'd probably want them graded. But Mint is not the allure for me even if money were no object.
I'll add one thing: It seems to me, and I suppose it's a logical development, that there are fewer and fewer ungraded cards on the market.
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