[jchcollins]

Ignoring mostly the investment aspect, my curiosity is around how many generations of true collectors can continue to be spawned if kids never get back into the hobby on the ground level (I don't believe they will). Folks my age (I'm 42) that collected in the 80's and early 90's have that nostalgia impulse to get back into it because of what we remember as kids. But what about increasing generations of kids who don't have that experience? Does it mean that the hobby continues to exist for those that latently find it as adults but that is just becomes smaller and more segmented? Everyone today who considers themselves a "collector", even those that spend investment type bucks on their collections - has a past rooted in the hobby at least to an extent before it became totally self-aware and pretty much ceased to exist for kids as it does today. That's just what I wonder - what happens to the cards a century from now when they are ONLY expensive things that you bought because of later interest, and not something people first remembered at the corner store for cents on the dollar?