I didn't find the CBS piece to be insightful at all. Yes, card shows are not as big as they used to be in the 80's --- that's news?!? CBS is only about a decade or two late with this story.
The fact that CBS completely ignored that the collectors market has transitioned from face-to-face card shows, brick-&-mortar card shops, and mail order catalogs to the internet is unbelieveable. In failing to mention the rise of eBay and the impact that it has had on the baseball card market, CBS demonstrates that it has done nothing more than prepare a poorly researched fluff piece for Sunday morning viewers. The segment represents the extremely poor quality of journalism that has become synonymous with the CBS brand in recent years.
It is true that there are many new forms of entertainment (including electronics and the internet) vying for the attention of young people in this day and age. However, baseball has a wider audience than ever and MLB stands to gain more fans in the coming years as the sport becomes more international. Granted, baseball card companies such as Topps have failed to capture the imagination of young people in recent decades. They have chosen to take the easy approach of turning card collecting into gambling through the use of rare inserts. They target adults who stand outside a K-marts ripping through packs of cards, only to throw away the common junk and buy more packs, seeking that Babe Ruth autograph that they can sell for thousands on eBay (just like a person who spends the afternoon scratching off lottery tickets in a convenience store looking for the one with a $10,000 prize). Eventually, the producers of baseball cards will come to the realization that there has been a paradigm shift in the way that kids collect sports cards, and they will go back to the drawing board in their marketing war rooms and come up with a strategy to re-energize the hobby. The product may be something completely different from the cardboard of the past (...but it won't be eTopps cards...).
As far as vintage cards are concerned, the value of those cards have generally soared higher since the 1980's, with very few exceptions. I see nothing but inflation ahead for cards produced prior to the 80's, and especially for pre-war cards. The vintage market may be dominated by middle-aged white guys, but that's because the prices have risen so much. Kids will need to reach adulthood to have the necessary cash to play in that game.
The baseball card market is alive and well. Card shows have been largely replaced by the internet. Baseball and all of the major sports will continue to grow in popularity, and there will be new types of collectibles developed and produced to fuel the hobby. Cards from the vintage era will be in greater and greater demand, resulting in ever-higher record prices for the antique gems of our beloved pastime.
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