Sorry to have to say it but, the demographics are what they are. Since the decades of steady rise in hobby interest hit its frenzied peak in the early '90's, hobby interest has been in a steep decline. This has always been a hobby with its roots steeped in childhood experiences. Unfortunely, the exploding interest in the hobby, back in the early '90's, was so badly managed that the generations that have followed have not grown up with those cherished memories. The shortsightedness, shift in the collector/investor matrix focus, and overt greed led to a bubble that largely turned off the last generation (individuals now in their late 20's and early 30's) that grew up with the hobby "bug."
The change in hobby focus from collector to investor, lead to kids treating their card collection as investment portfolio. This manipulated market is what led to all the bad feelings towards the "worthless shiny crap," after the inevitable bursting of the bubble. The hobby is headed to where stamp collecting is at today-- where the rarest of examples still fetch huge dollars from the "I bought it because I can" crowd, while the true collector market has all but dried up.
Great to see a 28 year old with such genuine passion and pure interest in the hobby. There won't be enough of them to keep prices from plummeting, IMHO.
To the true collectors that remain, that won't be an entirely bad thing. And there will always be some value in the cards that were made when it truely was a hobby. That's more than I can say for my other leisurely interests.
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