Yes, I actually prefer raw cards, but any time I spend over $75 for a baseball card on eBay, I get paranoid about buying a fake...so my Mays, Musial, Snider are graded. But honestly I’ve thought about cracking them out.
And I agree about the Bowman art work...it’s awesome. When I got in to vintage collecting a few years ago, I really considered chasing the 1951 set, but I knew the Mantle would ultimately not be attainable at a price I would be comfortable with. But it sounds like you are SO CLOSE to having that set done. If only you had pulled the trigger in the summer of 1979
So 1952 set became my project. Beautiful art and 2nd year cards of Mays and Mantle available for a fraction of the cost of their rookie cards.