There are a whole lot of people who actually collect cards. The manipulation (if that is the case) doesn't really affect them because they've seen it before and they aren't being stampeded into crazy purchases. When it gets to be too much they stop or substitute something else.
I do agree that news stories notwithstanding, the idea that new wealth is going into cards whole-hog is silly. A few investors are targeting extremely expensive cards for securitization and a few 'influencers' (hate that word) are egging it on, but what they do has as much bearing on what most collectors do as the price of a new Ferrari does on the purchase of a minivan.
The one exception is 1980s and newer basketball, which is really being pushed by collectors from overseas. No one is chasing Earl Monroe cards in Germany, but the Dream Team guys and newer, absolutely. I have seen German card shows and know collectors in Europe, and the collectors there are crazy for soccer and American basketball cards. There is a hell of a foreign fan base from 30 years of NBA marketing and broadcasts and the integration of great foreign players (Ming, Nowitzki, Doncic, The Greek Freak, etc.) into the NBA. I don't have more than a few, so I am not cheerleading my cards, but I see great potential that is legitimate and divorced from bubble-stuff, and I don't mean the silliness with the super-duper 1/1 inserts that catch the headlines. What was an $800 Star Jordan a year ago may be legitimately a $3000 card because the competition from overseas collectors looking to add a Star Jordan card is real in the international sales era of eBay.
Are there shills and manipulators and games? Absolutely. But there were also a ton of cards that were legitimately undervalued.
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