The next five years- what do you see for the future of the hobby?

[vintagecpa]

If I had to speculate, I would guess prices will go down slightly for the next 5 years. I base this on a combination of things. 1. Baby-boomers retiring and are on more of a fixed income. 2. Lots of people that found themselves unemployed for extended periods of time will be more likely to save instead of buying cardboard. 3. Younger collectors havr more interest in more modern cards 4. Baseball doesn't hold the same nostalgic value to newer collectors. As a kid, my entire summer was spent playing baseball, not Call For Duty. 5. I just see an overall trend of less discretionary income for such hobbies given today's economic environment. Just my opinion.

*Disclaimer* I thought Apple Computer was a bad investment 10 years ago when the stock was trading at about $25/share, so my track record of predicting the future is sketchy-at-best.