Posted By:
Corey R. ShanusFrank,
Grading came about not to tell people about the grade of their own cards, but to tell people about the grade of cards they were interested in purchasing. As is seen even today when auction houses sell raw cards and people complain about overgrading, there was a need to have some reasonably objective standard of grading so people could have confidence that what they were buying was in fact what was represented. In addition, grading gives collectors some degree of confidence the card was not altered (though on this one reasonable people can differ as to how much confidence).
For my collecting tastes, I prefer my cards to be ungraded. However, should I someday decide to sell, I know to maximize the price I will need to have them graded so prospective purchasers can hear from some objective third party that my cards are what I represent them to be.