[mintacular]

Yes, the gap between raw and graded has grown much too wide and so I've found myself buying raw, some of which I will sub myself. It's not just you! I feel like the graded price is the "marked up" price and I have enough knowledge and skills that I don't need to pay that premium. A few exceptions are higher dollar cards that I don't like that risk (mostly) and so those types of cards I'm not really buying at this time....I bought a simple lighted hand-held magnifier from Amazon which assists me in catching flaws for most raw cards that come across my desk. Since I already know the grading standards well, I feel like I can grade my own cards with accuracy, and don't need to pay a TPG to do this for me.