I think budgets dictate what we collect as well.
This is a big part of it for me. A secondary factor is that in some cases, I could afford to buy higher grade, but just don't want to spend a ton of money on a card. The fact is that 99.9 percent of the cards in my 1950's to early 1970's portion of my collection cost less than $100 apiece, and most of those less than $20. I'm not comfortable spending more than that.
I've heard quotes like, "Buy the highest grade you can afford" and stuff like that. I follow a different path - "buy just nice enough of a condition that makes me happy." For 1950's through early 70's, that condition is VG/VG-EX, and in some cases, even poor/fair will do. For the rest of the '70's, EX-MT/NM (not difficult to find in this condition and generally very inexpensive at well less than 1 buck for a common). For the 1980's+, NM/NM-MT.
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