Posted By:
E, DanielSorry if I jumped too far Scott, I agree with every thing you've said including proportions of collectors collecting at the different tiers.
I was pointing (perhaps too hotly) in my post to the pure numbers collecting raw versus collecting either slabbed or slabbing immediately after purchase, and that their (the grading preference community) collecting experiences cannot be minimized because of historical opportunities no longer available to them.
I still don't believe the concerns regarding crappy grading and altered cards is the domain of just high grade collectors, as I hardly fall into that catagory, but have become too sensitive I fear to people's descriptions. I also would love to hear your ideas for checking post graded material. Black light is well understood, but how does one argue a fresh looking edge is recently cut if a grading company has decided it vintage? I realize their expertise with vintage issues might not be what a seasoned collector's is, but checking edges is checking edges through every decade of issue, and their experience in looking at thousands upon thousands of cards (probably monthly) surely tips the scales their way in terms of likely accuracy..?
I'll try and stay out of Bruce threads - they always somehow get me in trouble even when I'm not responding directly to his post. 
To each his own.
Daniel