Great Thread
For me, collecting is a hobby, not an investment. I don't buy high-grade cards for that reason - give me a raw, mid-grade card and I am quite happy. That said, I would like my collection to retain a reasonable amount of its value, and do think about the future of the hobby from time to time.
I agree that our culture today is at odds with the values that drive most people to collect things. I also believe that the card suppliers have done a great disservice to the hobby by saturating the market with way too much product and focusing on gimmicks to generate short-term interest and sales that have no lasting appeal to a future collector.
I hope that down the road there will come a time when our culture realizes the harm that all this technology is doing and people begin to find more balance in their lives. Should this happen, one of the side benefits will be to collecting. And the post-war era, I believe, will benefit from this rebound if only because there is such a smaller supply of product available.
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