[tbob]

I wish I were as sure about the future of the hobby as many of you. The problem I see is that I realize there will always be the investment guys buying cards but as we get older (and a lot more of us are in the 50-75 range than you might think), you have a decreasing pool of guys who bought baseball cards as kids because they simply loved collecting cards of their heroes on the field. The popularity of baseball, as opposed to the NFL and college football, has been steadily decreasing and with the youth of America favoring a game of more violence, more action and more glitz, I have to wonder. I've been surprised at the number of collectors here on this board in their 20's and 30's but I have a real question about the future of the hobby because it seems based a lot more on investment and value with the kids than it did with collectors who collected cards when they were young in the 50's and 60's and gladly traded their doubles (even if they were future HOFers) even up for commons they needed but couldn't find.