[dougscats]

Aside from the aesthetics, cost, and many of the points James has made at length, there is an important practical factor that greatly favors collecting raw: viewing and reviewing one’s collection.

I can’t overstate what a pleasure it is to flip through my binder of T206’s whenever I want. I have about 850 in one book, probably weighs 5-10 pounds, and it’s portable; I can take it with me. How many pounds would 850 slabs weigh? And they’d fill up a trunk. How do you guys look at your collections? I have a few dozen slabs, including some of the most expensive ones. I don’t break them out anymore because of cost, but I hardly ever look at them.

And while cost is a primary practical factor for me, I like to be able to touch a card, to get a sense of that past.

One other point: It would seem to me that the pool of ungraded cards is ever decreasing; i.e., more of them are getting slabbed every day than are getting broken out. I would say it’s harder today to collect decent condition ungraded cards than when I started out. Food for thought here.