Do you prefer graded cards?

[tarheelsnipe]

For older cards (<1990) I prefer graded, especially for the high end stuff.

Older graded cards definitely hold more value than raw cards. Do a search for older RC's of players like MJ, Magic, Russell, Erving, etc. to see the price difference. Keep in mind that Beckett BV's account for age. My memory is fuzzy, but I believe cards from 1981-present are priced in NrMT-MT condition, cards in the 70's are priced in NrMT condition, and card older than 1970 are priced in Ex-MT condition (or something along those lines).

For displaying, I have a wall-mounted display case sized for graded cards. I like PSA because the cases are not as heavy as BGS cases. Others prefer Beckett because the cases are more sturdy. I'm not dropping my cards off a 10 foot wall so I think they'll be OK in the PSA case. When you hang a display case on drywall with over 30 cards, weight is a factor.

For newer GU/autographed cards, I don't really care if it's graded or not. I only care about the auto being on-card, but that's a dead horse we'll beat in another thread.

Ultimately, it's all personal preference.

[Kadamscards]

I don' know. I only have two graded cards that I got off Ebay of Jason Williams.. I won them cheap so I figured it would be a good buy but now I don't really have a place to store them. I agree most cards I like to have in a binder but I also agree that maybe with older cards it's worth getting them graded. I've never paid to have a card graded but I just bought a 57-58 topps Arnie Risen and was thinking about having it graded just to see what it would receive for it's condtion. I guess it would make it worth more if it was graded high. However, with the newer cards like the JWill's I got it seemed like the person lost money to have those graded since they sold for 2 dollars....