Is it still possible to build a pre-war collection while avoiding TPGs altogether?

[the 'stache]

About a week ago, I stumbled across a discussion on Net 54 about The Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector magazine. It immediately piqued my interest, as I am always on the lookout for educational material about our hobby. Within the discussion, it was mentioned that issue #7 was substantially more difficult to acquire because it contained an article called "PSA & ASA Card Grading Services: Smoke Detectors Without Batteries". I happened to locate a copy for sale on Ebay, and purchased it. It arrived today. Written by editor & publisher Dennis C. Purdy, Sr., the article was quite critical of the third party graders, and what he saw as a conflict of interest.

Not everyone in the country respects or trusts what [PSA & ASA] do. And some of that mistrust has to do with this: We see a service operated by a very few people that grades cards, publishes price guides based on the grades awarded, and whose owner(s) also buy and sell these same cards. Now if that's not a conflict of interest with the potential to lend itself to fraud and abuse, I've never seen one.

This editorial by Purdy appeared in July of 1996. It was certainly prophetic, as we still vigorously debate the necessity (among other things) of third party graders today.

While reading this article, a question popped into my head: if you want to build a quality pre-war or vintage collection, is it still possible to acquire the cards you want while avoiding these third party graders altogether? In other words, can you still build the collection you want, getting the cards you want in the condition you are completely happy with, while avoiding PSA, SGC, Beckett completely?

There are certainly collectors here who are well established & respected within the pre-war and vintage communities, and those collectors will have in place a network of friends and dealers who can get them what they are looking for. But for people who are comparatively new to the hobby, is it possible put together the collection you want without involving these companies? Or, would this pursuit be folly?

I'm still developing my "eye" when it comes to critically assessing the condition of a baseball card. And so, yes, if I were to buy an ungraded card, I might overpay for it because I have overestimated the card's condition. I have no problem with that. But when I see advertisements like the one below, I get really angry.

This ultimately amounts to price manipulation, in my opinion. Yes, the majority of T206 and Goudey cards I've bought thus far have been graded. But what if I don't want buy graded cards?