I can't think of a time the general vintage market has gone down and stayed down for more than a few months. Even in the recession prices rebounded quickly. Some individual cards will fluctuate, like the 'buyers groups' items, caramel cards a few years back. Usually it is more of a correction to a ridiculous short term price jump than an unexpected seemingly-random decline.
As set collectors are becoming increasingly rare and the generation that has a personal nostalgia for the heavily produced Topps/Bowman sets begin to leave the living in greater number each year, the prices for much of the post-war vintage cards not of major super HOF's may well decline. The new blood coming in is mostly focused on flipping and short term 'investing' of cards promoted among the Discord groups, which are the graded big stars.
In general, pre-war is pretty safe I think. Outside of T206/1933 Goudey and a few others, production was low enough that a very large collector base does not need to be maintained to maintain value, and the most common sets are the most popular anyways.
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