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MJEric, super nice post; great financial break-down.
Just as Robert said a couple of posts above, I too collected in the hey-day of junk cards. I began to realize that the card industry was very suspect and well...just wasn't that fun (I'm "over" the glean and sheen of insert cards with swatches or autographs).
But Eric's post hit it on the head - I LOVE collecting, but not the new stuff; there just isn't a high probability of return on the cards now due to production volume (sorry, but I still don't consider a 1 of 1 card scarce - it's just a gimmick).
When I came to the realization that the new cards are....well, not fun to collect, is when I switched over to the pre-war stuff, which quite honestly, has absolutely thrilled me. Although I'm far from being considered a "whale" in the industry, I can certainly afford more than the $0.35 cents per pack of cards that I use to buy.
Also, I think we all, to some extent, collect as investment (how many times have any of you heard, when a card is damaged or when mom or dad tossed out some of your cards, you'd hear about someone saying, or yourself said, "Do you know how much those were worth??!!!")
I love to collect and it just happens to be helpful that it's a worthwhile investment! (who wants to buy my Jose Canseco 1986 Donruss Rated Rookie card? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?) hehehe