Opinions on Graded vs Raw

[JollyElm]

I would urge you to always keep in mind price differential.

I used to be full-on into non-graded (I abhor the term 'raw' ) with everything in binders, but when I was trying to finish off some sets, it became obvious to me that the prices being asked for graded cards wasn't significantly more (your experience may vary) than their non-graded counterparts, so I began buying slabs and it changed my opinion drastically. (Wow, that's a long run-on sentence.) This was before all the ballyhoo regarding card doctors, but I have always only bought graded cards that in no way appeared doctored, especially with regard to trimming. It used to be that when you got a graded card, you knew exactly what you had, an EX, EXMT or NRMT card, so there was a great level of comfort involved and the card was protected within its slab. Nowadays, you have to be even more diligent in determining whether or not a slabbed card has been messed with, of course, but if there isn't much of a difference in the price between something in a slab and something in just a toploader, it may do you well to buy graded cards here and there.

Good luck!