I have come to appreciate slabs in certain circumstances. My Ikes are all slabbed; that was a conscious decision to collect them that way, kinda just to do it. Almost all the rest are raw. If I'm buying as a type coin, it just needs to be VF or better in the picture. The Ikes I decided I wanted to all be a minimum of MS-65, and that means professional grading to me. The only other slabs just happened to be the right coin at the right price at the right time.