Posted By:
Judge DredAdam,
There are two main factors why people will buy a beat and tattered card:
Economics (affordability)
Availability (how many ExMt E107 Wagners are there?)
I have a lot of respect for the collectors that love this hobby so much that they will place lower grade cards to complete their sets or to enhance their collections. These people are in it for the love of collecting. I'm not saying that people don't love collecting if they wont accept a lower grade card but the fact that getting joy from adding a card (whehter it be P/F or ExMt) to a collection is what it's all about. Hobby budgets vary from a few hundred dollars a year to millions. If you're on the lower end of the spectrum it's not reasonable to think that you're going to get ExMt cards in any quantity.
Getting a card graded is done for a few different reasons:
Protect the card for future generations to enjoy.
Investment vehicle that may produce a profit later.
Place the collection is a set registry.
Bragging rights.
MOST collectors who are in the hobby for "investment purposes" buy graded cards because that's supposed to be "where the money is" and the investment potential depends upon an assigned number from some trained monkey that knows less about this hobby than a stock broker really knows about picking the right stock.
There may come a day when you just might succomb to purchasing a P/F card to complete a set. When that day comes, hopefully you'll see the appreciation that many collectors have for this hobby. I'm not saying you don't have an appreciation but when a hobby is investment driven it makes it difficult to appreciate the hobby if a bubble bursts and the stuff turns out to be just pictures of baseball players on cardboard.
Keep collecting and be happy with what you obtain!