Help/Advice buying ungraded vs. graded

[Mountaineer1999]

I would like to start collecting HOF player cards. The rookies are way too expensive so I am trying to pick players most appealing card from any year they were active. I would like to have them all graded and collect against the PSA HOF Registry. The issue I am running into, as a rule, graded cards are so much more expensive than their ungraded brothers.
So, is it a good idea to buy ungraded and then ship them to PSA for grading? Or.... is the fact the card looks nice and is not graded generally mean its trimmed or there is some other underlying issue? Just looking for a little advice from the more experienced , wanting to be as cost effective as possible.

Just as an example.. I was looking at the 1950 Bowman Bobby Doerr. There are a couple nicer looking raw cards. Would it be better to buy one of these and chance it? Is there a way to tell if these are trimmed? Looking through some of the sold.... they can be had raw for about 1/2 the PSA-4 pretty routinely. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...+1950&_sacat=0