My 13 year old nephew collects baseball cards, primarily recent cards with an emphasis on the Cubs. I gave him Javy Baez and Willson Contreras rookie cards for Christmas, along with a Donruss blaster box, and he was very happy. A few years ago I gave him a bunch of my doubles from the late 70s and early 80s, and he went through them picking out the Hall of Famers, which he put in his album. So this is a kid who collects current cards but is also interested in older cards.
I would assume that most of the people buying high-end recent cards at shows (autographs, relics, refractors of Trout, Bryant, Ohtani, etc.) are adults, simply because they're the ones with the money for that stuff. Same goes for the people paying $100-$150 for hobby boxes. But I'm sure there are plenty of other kids like my nephew, buying individual packs with what money they have and picking up a nicer card if the opportunity presents itself.
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