I think the element that is being missed here is the makeup of the hobby in the past versus today. By the early 1990s the hobby had grown exponentially. Kids were a huge part of the customer base. Flash forward 20+ years and kids are a tiny fraction of a hobby that may be 10% or 20% of it's size at the peak.
I can remember trying to get my hands on a 1993 Fleer Rookie Sensation Frank Thomas. It was an insert only available in jumbo packs. I couldn't find one anywhere. It was selling for $50 and card shows with 50+ dealers didn't have a single copy. There was just huge demand back then. I could have traded it to my friends for anything in their collection (like a 86 Donruss Jose Canseco!, for instance). Now you can pick one up for $5 on eBay all day long. Looking back it seems like they printed a million of that card. At the time, it sure didn't seem that way.
Sure, regular Topps is still pretty worthless. But my son still likes opening the packs. We focus on individual autographs now. They are available and relatively inexpensive for most players not named Kris Bryant. It's still fun. Even if he is the only kid in his elementary school who collects. We may still be in the junk wax era to some degree. But there is still plenty of cool things to collect.
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