I agree completely with David--what the card companies have done with truly historic items (assuming they could ever be truly established as having that status now) falls into the tragic category. As to value, they are best categorized as a fad, with no lasting monetary value at all. If you take the time to actually study items that have become quite valuable in our collecting field, as well as others (with coin collecting especially having followed many of the same trends and patterns, but having had the benefit of having been around in an organized fashion for 120 years longer), you will find that they all have as common attributes rarity and signifance. Any gold coin bearing a date of pre-1834, for example, is rare and significant, because the vast majority of them were melted down for bullion value, since at the time, the bullion value exceeded the coin's face value. Most U.S. coins from the 1790's are enormously significant, as they are the first coins issued by the United States as an entity, and are not only rare in many cases, but enormously significant (they might be seen as this country's "rookie" coins). Any authentic Babe Ruth card from the 19-teens, twenties or thirties is significant and in many cases legitimately rare (with the obvious exception of the 'thirties Goudey issues). The game-used materials cards will never have these attributes.
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