[mrmopar]

I think your point is valid, but the majority of collectors are aging and stuck in their mindsets. That will probably only change with a changing of the guard. I see a whole different picture of "collecting" when I view online facebook groups, for example. There may be crossover, but those people who are highly active in the groups I am a part of seem to see things very differently.

I first started collecting in 1978, buying packs from a grocery store. I didn't have access to shops/shows and the only "outside" world became TCMA catalogs. A few years later, I remember getting a 1933 Goudey card from a rare card shop visit, thinking I had something incredible and amazing. That card was obtained by me in 1983 (just to make the math easier). It was 50 years old at the time.

I certainly don't feel the same sense of magic when I think of a 1972 Topps card today, yet that is now a 50 year old card!

1989 seems like another well defined break in an era of card collecting, with the UD issue. Hard to think any of us will ever really look at a 1988 Topps card any differently though, probably mostly due to massive overproduction, the almost instinctive need to protect cards by then and that late 80s period of time where there seems to have been fewer high profile players making their debut who went on to eternal greatness.