Are my expectations too high? Creased vintage cards

[jchcollins]

Commonly accepted grading practice before TPG's and going back to at least 1980 if not earlier, holds that "EX" cards should have no creases, or at least not anything resembling a crease on the front of the card. I believe that SGC's standard currently says that a 5 can have a light wrinkle on the front which does not break the surface and does not detract from eye appeal, but in practice it's rare to see that get a 5; many cards like that get lower grades even if they look fairly good and you can't see the wrinkle. I once had a '55 Bowman Kaline in a PSA 5 that had noticeable wrinkling on the front, but otherwise the card was NM-MT+. I guess they bend the rules sometimes. With raw cards, unfortunately you have to find a dealer who is reputable and does not routinely overgrade cards, as so many of them do these days - and especially with vintage. The better advice for anything of substance in midgrade is probably just to buy graded if you like the eye appeal. The vast majority of 5's from a reputable grader will not have a true crease.

[wdwfan]

Thanks everyone for all of the responses. I've got lots of reading to do, haha. But I did catch some points already. Mainly ask questions and don't throw out creased cards, haha. As far as graded, I'm not into it. I'm not going to buy graded. If I do, I would crack it out and put it into my notebook and go from there.