Graded vs. Raw Rant.......

[raulus]

It's certainly an interesting philosophical debate.

I think the arguments largely break down into what you prefer, and what you can afford.

Unless you're under 20, you probably grew up with ungraded cards. So for many of us, there's an artistic and aesthetic preference for ungraded. Luckily, ungraded are typically much lower cost as well.

Some people, on the other hand, like the look and feel of the slabs. I'm certainly not going to dictate to anyone else how they should attempt to value art, so to each their own.

And for anyone who loves numbers, competing, and statistics, the grade has a way of attempting to boil all of the card's attributes into a single number. There's certainly plenty to suggest that the numbers assigned to any given card are less than objective, but at the same time it's an attempt to get there. And certainly for someone with means, it's an opportunity to then always be looking to upgrade. While there's an obvious level of competition between collectors, it's often just as much a question about competing against myself as I seek to continually improve my collection.

Does such an exercise merely result in self delusion and spending ungodly sums of money on dubious upgrades? Perhaps. Probably. Almost definitely. Guilty as charged.

[raulus]

Probably should've also mentioned that the PSA Set Registry also helps me to stay organized, keep track of what items I already have in each set, and then work to fill those gaps.

Naturally, there are other ways to track it, but PSA's approach is pretty handy and user friendly.

[gustomania]

Good point on the registry

While I don’t use it anymore, I do use the sports album and love the look I get with my PSA graded cards. This is where I struggle with raw and having a album like PSAs and showcasing them for my viewing pleasure. I’m sure their are other cool options but for me things like flicker just seem clunky and I have no desire to have cards there or anywhere like that.