As much as I hate to say it, I'm bearish on the hobby over the long haul. The game itself is still popular with kids, but baseball cards have almost no hold on the imagination or interest of today's children. I suppose there's hope that Pokemon and other gaming cards or even fads like Silly Bandz might prime kids for later collecting behavior, but I see little future nostalgic attachment to baseball cards. There will always be a market, of course, but I doubt that natural population growth will offset the dwindling percentage of young people that collect.
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