It looks like there is a real mixture here...a lot of good points have been made. I am on the fence. Traditionally, in set building, most of my commons are pretty nice but raw. My stars are all slabbed. I do worry about trimming, alterations, etc so I buy them slabbed or buy raw and immediately submit them for grading. My '53 Topps baseball set grades out overall mid-grade: the graded cards range from 5-7 (the Mantle is an uncreased 4). The raw commons would fall in this range, too. I have eliminated creases/wrinkles from the set. There are probably a couple that need to be replaced because of centering.
Anyway, my problem is becoming one of storage/display. I have all the star cards to the '53 and what I have acquired so far in '54 in a separate storage box (all slabbed). Meanwhile, the commons to the '53 set are all in a separate storage box, and the '54s likewise...all in Cardsaver 1s. I keep reading about storage of vintage sets in binders. I was skeptical, but I have really started liking what I see from toploaderbinder.com. I guess it bothers me that I wouldn't be able to get my set all together for viewing in the binder because the stars (and a few commons) are slabbed. I like the idea of raw cards, and I wish I had the guts and conviction of Harliduck to crack my slabs. I am a collector and not a dealer/investor. I collect because I absolutely love 1952-1958 Topps baseball cards. I just cannot get enough. I know there's no wrong way to collect, but I feel like I need to make a choice. Help?!
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