Among T206 collectors, grading can be a polarizing topic. There are some who would never buy an ungraded card, and others who can’t wait to crack out their newly acquired graded cards and put them into their binders. Then of course there is a large group of people who fall somewhere in the middle.
The reason that some prefer graded cards is the security of knowing both that the card is authentic, and a general price range for the card. Less experienced collectors wisely gravitate towards graded cards for the security and peace of mind they provide. I know a number of more experienced collectors who prefer their cards ungraded, either in a binder or card savers/top loaders.
I’ve seen many long-time collectors state that they choose to keep their cards raw because that is the way they kept their cards when they first collected cards as a kid. The way I collected cards as a kid I believe contributes to my fondness for graded cards. When I was a kid, I placed a lot of importance on the presentation of my cards. I routinely paid $2 a pop for those thick lucite screw-downs to house my favorite cards.
I liked the way they looked in the thick holders and I liked the protection the holder provided. The last reason is a little silly, but I’ll confess it here, among friends. I felt like my best cards deserved to be displayed in a grandiose way, and by putting them in a thick lucite holder, I was showing them the respect they deserved.
As ridiculous as that sounds when I say it out loud (or write it), 34 year-old me still treats my cards the same way 14 year-old me did. If I could have created my own custom card holders back then, they very well might have looked like PSA holders do now. Putting my cards into a graded holder that provides protection and notes the player’s name and back advertisement is definitely something I would have done as a kid if I had collected T206s instead of 1991 Score.
An additional reason I prefer my cards to be graded is that, as a back collector, I enjoy being able to look at the front of a graded card and see the back written on the label. It’s nice when thumbing through my own cards, but it also saves me a ton of time when scrolling through sale listings online. Another thing that graded cards have going for them is ease of sale. I have a small card budget, so when I buy a new card, I almost always need to sell something to offset the cost. Having the majority of my collection graded already graded makes it easy to list a few cards for sale and sell them quickly.