How did this all start?

[Fred]

Lots of interesting theories. What I have a difficult time trying to figure out is the demographic of the people buying into the hype. When you think about it, who has the kind of money to dump on things like cardboard as an investment.

Then you stop and consider the Game Stop short squeeze (early 2021) and the line of knucklehead investors reading/reacting to the Reddit blogs.

A lot of those Game Stop Reddit readers got burned, badly. The smart ones (probably a small percentage) got out at the right time because they understood the market and the ignorant ones lost quite a bit. Someone had to lose in that scam.

In the end if there was a wide audience without any collecting experience propping up the market, at least they have a cool card (or cards) to show for their efforts. Makes you wonder, if there it's possible to have the same "investment" result that Game Stop stock has had. Investors would lose their ass on card board. Think how badly the price of card board could drop. Wishful thinking for hobbyist and collectors.