I suspect that Rosen is correct -- too many other diversions for kids to sustain the hobby (at least as we know it) in the long-run. I should think that the vintage card market, especially rarities, would be the last to feel this effect.

But the number of kids will be expanding continuously, so all the baseball card market needs is a steady supply of boys who play baseball. As long as there is little league, there will be baseball cards. Maybe not billions of cards each year, but they will be produced.

And as long as there are middle aged men who are interested in baseball history and (or) who like to relive their own youthful love of baseball, there will always be people who buy and sell vintage baseball cards.

I agree, Mark. What's more, I would expect vintage collectors to skew into the 40s and 50s because those are the peak earning years. It takes disposable income to collect vintage cards; kids just out of school and young adults trying to establish families and homes don't have the play money they will in 10-20 years. And let's not forget the 800# gorilla, the recession, which ripped the crap out of lots of card values and collections.

It is hard to imagine nobody collecting Baseball Cards in 50-75 years. It really sucks for the children today. I am 31 and from 1988-1994 my friends and I collected Baseball cards and we also had other things to worry about like Nintendo, Sega, Sports, and "girls" too.....BUT we were not paying $300-$500 for a box of Baseball cards. We also couldn't afford the vintage cards, but it really didn't matter because we were worried about Baseball players of our generation and besides the legends we really didn't know too much about Rollie Fingers, Willie McCovey, Lou Brock etc. There was no way our parents were spending that kind of money.

Who knows though, when I finally graduated from college and started my career and finally had some money....I bought all the cards I wanted that I could never afford when i was younger and then started collecting the older stuff. That might be the new cycle for collector's of my generation and later though....wait 8-10 years later to buy the stuff you wanted because it will be worth less, as opposed to the kids from the 50s who had grew up and had to pay 200x more.

Bill...I guess I was wasted when I read it...I guess any bb card stuff esp in the news is cool...especially cuz I got to see a young lee behrens in a really queer outfit!!!!!! But ...no...the story was skewed and did not tell much of the real story!

hobbies
 

So what were the top 10 collections 50 years ago? My grandpa collected marbles and pocket knives. My mom collected stamps. I'm sure my grandpa thought kids would shoot marbles forever...and when was the last kid you saw with a stamp collection? Stamp collecting was never going to die...maybe it hasn't and I just don't see the stamp shows on the weekend...

Enjoy your collection and resign yourself to the fact nobody will care about a PSA 9 1965 Willie Mays in 50 years.

Geno