making the grade?

Ok, so as I posted the other day, I am full on in attacking this 1954 Topps set. I did go a little crazy this weekend and bought a few of the "big guys" off of eBay. You will see them when I see them in my grubby little hands. A few of them are CRIMINALLY cheap, and I almost feel that I ripped the seller off (you'll see who I'm talking about when it gets here) but some others I felt were at a really great price so I nabbed 'em. One question though:

Has anyone pried open a graded card before? Obviously opening up this card would be a crime, but as far as some of these 1954s go, I don't want them graded. Personally I could care less about graded cards and the only reason I bought them was because of the cheap-o price I got them for. I don't have any graded cards, nor do I look at them at shows, so I really have no idea how they are trapped in there (I assume glue), but it immediately makes me think of this:

Let them out I say! I really am going to get those cards out of there, crazy or not. They do not fit into the binder, 8 pocket pages when graded. I am going to doubt that anyone has really tried this before, but I may be surprised. If you do have some experience in this, please let me know. Call me crazy!

hot for teacher

I had planned on writing something about grading a little while back, I just never got around to writing it. This article from Sports Cards Uncensored sums it all up perfectly and is way more on point than I would ever be. I can see some benefit to grading but overall I feel it detracts from the hobby as a whole. If you read this regularly, you'll notice that I buy some pretty beat up vintage cards. I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't need a "perfect" 10 graded 1954 Jackie Robinson, my old ratty one suits me just fine. Sure if it were graded 10 and slabbed up, theoretically no one could make it less than a 10 by damaging it, hence keeping the value up seemingly forever. It never sees another hand or greasy fingerprint. It won't get thrown at a wall or put in bike spokes to make a cool noise (kids don't do this anymore to their cards...I don't think anyway). Nope. It will remain in its little plastic tomb forever, never to be touched again. How fun. No binder. No penny sleeve. Just a 'here's my big hunk of plastic with a card inside, wanna look?', when shown to all your collecting buddies. Fooey I say! Let your cards breathe and interact with the others the way they were supposed too!