Spend some money on Ebay for raw books and all will become clear (thumbs u
+1 (thumbs u
I was of the same opinion as yourself, why buy something you can't read? but like ckp1680 rightly says, i got sick of either sending over graded books back or selling them on for a loss, so i turned to buying cgc books.
Not all collectors are grade conscious, but a lot of us are, so cgc is a safer way to buy books, if everyone graded strictly, maybe cgc might not be as popular.
I've bought books from E-Bay...but the CGC ones are sooooo expensive that I shy away from them. I just want a copy for my collection. Not for my wall. Ah, well. To each their own I guess. It's just not for me.