[Rich Klein]

Card Stores really exploded about 1988-91 when the economy was on a downturn and many people were trying to use their money to open what they thought would be a safer longer term business

The plethora of stores was already beginning to crest and then in 1994 when the Baseball Strike coupled with the Hockey Lockout put a serious hurt on business. One long-time DCS store owner told me his wife started cleaning houses so they would have guaranteed income during that period. They did survive and later thrive.

Then EBay (and other internet selling ways but primarily EBay) took over and many people did not then go to stores because anything they really wanted they could find on-line and usually cheaper. Plus, the world of unopened had taken such a hurt after the overproduction years that people did not want to buy those anymore. (Which partially accounts for how difficult many of the tougher 1990's inserts are even harder to find than you would expect)

So, as the OP posted, about the time his uncle gave up his store (as well as the others in that area) there was a severe reduction in shows and stores.

We had fpr a gppd 15-20 years (1998-2018) maybe 5-10 stores in the DFW area and for shows (1998-2014( Maybe 5-6 shows a year of any size. I went monthly with my show in 2014 and there were some others as well so that's why shows got going before the store total increased/

Now we have a ton of stores again and a boatload of shows and we'll see what the future holds

Rich