As the starter of this thread, I'll tell you what I had in mind. Its a thread about getting a great deal on a raw card. Maybe you got it graded. Maybe not. Doesn't matter.
It ended up that many folks, including myself, talked about getting that raw card graded. I don't think this is because everyone who posted about getting a card graded thinks a raw card "success" story must result in a slabbed card. I think this is mainly because the value of graded cards is more established, and so its easier to communicate a story about how you bought a raw card for cheap that ended up grading high, it shows how the card was obviously under appreciated. In other words, a story about a cheap raw card that graded high communicates quickly how good of a deal that it actually was.
Now maybe you bought a raw card for cheap, and flipped it for a great price without getting it graded. That's a cool story too, that I want to hear. But it appears that many of the responders here thought that they could fetch more for a card at auction if its graded, so maybe that is another reason why more folks had a story about it being graded.
I'm just saying that this thread was sort of set up to gravitate towards graded cards, but it isn't at all limited to that. Whatever floats your boat. And at least in threads that I start, sarcasm, as well as strong opinions, are very welcome, this forum would be a little dull without either, in my humble opinion...
