Current state of the hobby-Modern cards

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

But any and all cards were considered just garbage back in the day! That's why almost all were roughly handled and then eventually pitched out in the garbage. And the very fact that they were nothing but cheap kid stuff when issued is what gives them charm today.

What troubles me about the TCG cards issued since the mid-1990's is that they weren't considered absolute garbage when issued. Everybody including kids knew about card values by then. As a result there's not been much of a destruction factor. The rarities these days are therefore the manufactured rarities which I consider to be "artificial" somehow.

Yes, but many people actually, ahem, USED or still use those TCG cards in games so there is not quite the same level of protection for many of those as there are for sports cards.