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APGranted - I'm not a veteran by any means...but the following comes from about three years of experience...take it for what it's worth:
On the values of slabbed and unslabbed - From what I have seen, a slabbed card compared to an unslabbed example of the same card in similar condition will grab higher prices. On the contrary, a card that looks great but has the one minor flaw that will knock it down one or two grades could lose you your money. For example, you buy an unslabbed card at a "five" price, get it graded and have it come back a "three". Now you have a card that lost the value you put into it. With all that said, 'A card is worth what someone will pay for it."
No idea on your museum question...
On buying Ungraded - I try to bear in mind that the card is ungraded when forming a price in my mind only because of those cards that look like a 5 or 6 that turn out to be a 4 or even 3. Internet is great for making deals but lousy for getting a close-up view of a card and can hide those very small flaws that graders see.
On graders - I think that SGC does the best. But the other board members may have a more informative opinion. I have seen way too many "mistakes" by PSA that are unacceptable - more so than SGC. Furthermore, i find SGC more knowledgable and hospitable.
On grading - I think that graders for the most part grade all cards with the same eye. However, there are some cards that are more susceptible to certain flaws - the T205's chip easily, the strip cards are handcut, the E105's are extremely thin...and there are cards that are not susceptible to many flaws at all - the M116's are printed on strong paper...
On trimming - Obviously length is the big one. Also if you view a certain set enough, you can tell by the "look of the card" for the most part. Some guys on the board can just look at a border and say, "that's trimmed" and be on the money. With that said, ancient techniques of cutting the cards at the factory sometimes yielded miscuts - so that ain't rocket science. A trimmed card's paper fibers will look much different on the "trimmed" side than on the "untrimmed" sides.