Anyone else feeling raw is their only option these days?

[mferronibc]

Hi all, I know there’s been a lot of concern about the skyrocketing vintage market and while sure it’s a double edge that my personal collection has more value to it I feel like I’ve lost most of fun I was having the last few years building it and am priced out of what I liked to collect. I know many people here prefer raw to graded anyway but for me I was only buying graded cards because of the security to me that 1) they were authentic and 2) that at least there is some quantifiable determination of the grade of the card that is just too hard for me to do with raw online pictures. Problem is I typically liked to spend about $100-200 per card which 8 months ago would be able to get me mid to sometimes higher grade cards even of Aaron, Mays, etc.

Now it seems all I can afford is 2-3 grade range which usually means much less visually appealing cards. I can’t increase my budget so for that same price point find myself having to “gamble” on raw cards with the hope I can have them graded myself and they’ll still land mid tier. Just worries me more the better the cards look the more chance they’re trimmed or fakes.

Anyone else feel like they’re in this same boat?