[mintacular]

There are a whole lot more reasons why the hobby has suffered than the rookie card craze of the 80s...In terms of collecting for "joy" only, collecting during my generation is much different than yours in this regard. When I collected, Beckett Price guides arrived each month with up arrows indicating that my '89Griffey UD had just jumped from $40 to $80--thus there was always a cash element to collecting (unfortunately). In short, my generation never fully experienced the pure joy of collecting as previous ones had. Fortunately for me, I learned to appreciate the cards per se admist this speculation time era, especially during later years.