[barrysloate]

There is also a different way that people collect today, that we didn't see as much a generation ago. Back in the 1980's, collectors mostly worked on completing sets. If you worked on T206, you knew that a HOFer would cost more than a common, a Cobb more than a McGraw, and a Plank more than a Cobb. That came with the territory, and the better cards always sold for a multiple of the lesser ones.

Today there may not be as much set collecting (although still quite a bit), but there is much more emphasis on chasing iconic cards. There is an undeniable status buying a high profile card and throwing it right on Net54 to show off to friends. That didn't exist 25 years ago. Also, many of these iconic cards are marketed entirely differently today.

Take the Baltimore News Ruth as an example. It was a known but obscure item in the 1980's. Collectors considered it a minor league schedule with an early picture of Ruth on it. Always valuable, even then, but it was after all still a schedule. Then in recent years it has been reclassified a baseball card, slabbed by the grading companies, and marketed as Ruth's rookie card (remember the days when an M101-4/5 was the rookie card?). The result is it has become a must have card. So while everything has appreciated over time, as it should, some cards have simply gone into orbit.

Another example, as cited by Ted Z. and others, is the E90-1 and T210 Jackson. In the 1980's they were expensive cards that needed to be acquired along the way to completing their respective sets. But after the two movies, they became status cards and everyone who could afford them had to have one. Again, this is something we rarely saw happen back then, but happens regularly today. Somebody could expand on this and write a paper on the psychology of collecting...but it won't be me.