[Bigdaddy]

.....and he is us. Yes, the hobby has changed, and I can vouch that my kids don't hold their cards with the same esteem that I did. I'd buy cards in wax packs during the 1970's - seperate them into team sets - put a rubber band around them - insert the bound blocks of cards in to a shoe box - and go down the street and trade with my buddies. All without any regard for price, value, dinged corners, centering, gum stains, etc. All the things we look at (and even pay people to evaluate for us) closely now.

The hobby changed because of money. As long as kids (all of us at one time) were the lifeblood of the hobby, it was no more than pieces of cardboard with pictures of ballplayers. But then we became adults and remembered how much we liked those cards and created demand for them. And if anyone remembers anything from economics class, it's that as demand goes up, price will follow (with a fixed supply, such as previously issued cards). And if the demand goes up for future cards, supply will increase to match the demand - aka what happened in the 1980's. More companies entered the market (to grab a piece of the pie) and the companies produced record number of cards. All the while we kept thinking "Well if those cards of the 50's and 60's are worth so much now (25 years later), then the same will come of these cards" and we bought them as fast as the card companies could produce them. We now all know where that went. Same thing with Beanie Babies, the dot com stocks, and most recently real estate. Just a different number of zero's in the dollar signs for each of those markets.

We've come down from that unstainable growth, and the hobby has matured to a different level than it was in 'the good ol' days.' Better or worse, you make the call. I'm still in (though with a different outlook now). It's still a hobby for me, I don't have to make money or feed my family with proceeds from buying and selling cards. With apologies to Stephen Stills (Treetop Flyer): "I don't collect cards that don't make me smile"