[allinpreflop99]

Bonds, glad to hear you're going to participate on Halloween.

robags - Interesting perspective, although I have seen money figures that tend to disagree.  The hobby in it's hay-day was something like 5-6 times what it is now.

[stevini18]

Gave out 2 packs of Topps Big or Mini (late 80's) to each kid (boy and girl) who came to my door for Halloween (about 75-100 kids I estimate, based on the amount of candy we went to).  Everyone loved the baseball cards.  I got a few "Oh, dad's gonna love those!" but most kids were pretty excited to get some cards.  That and the fact that people were taking pictures of our awesome pumpkins, I'd say we were the coolest house in the complex...  will definitely do it next year too!

[snakebit95]

A lot of interesting perspectives / stories in this thread, so I figured I would share mine as well. I started collecting in the early 80's and collected because I loved the game enough that it gave me incentive to build sets. Back then it was pretty easy to build all the sets since you only had Topps, Fleer and Donruss. At age of 10-12, it took me most of the year to save the money to bust enough packs to build those 3-sets. I kept collecting through the mid 90's where it started to become ever more difficult due to parallels and inserts. Then I chose player cards to collect since it was easier to get them all. When the baseball strike hit, I lost total interest and stopped collecting. I think the strike took a BIG chunk of enthusiasm out of everybody. A couple of years after the strike, I came back to a card industry that was out of control. I could not believe the number of sets being offered with all the multi-tier cards, parallels, limited production issues, e.t.c. The pack prices were ridiculous as well. Nothing like spending $100+ for a box of cards to get a couple of $5 cards. That took the wind out of my sail too. Anyways, card shops have gone downhill because of their high over-head costs. Internet stores that are run from homes and EBay killed the stores, and will continue to run what few are left out of business. The same has happened in other industries as well. I have been a long-time Bonds collector and still work on picking-up some of the cards that I do not already have. Unfortunately, most of those cards are super low runs and when they do show-up, the owner wants HUGE $$$ for them. I have always collected for fun and never gave the investment side much though. There is no doubt that collecting has really changed since the day I started. I really do not see anything that is going to cause it to reverse directions either, aside from the overall economy getting better and perhaps people starting to spend money again.

[cubsivy]

the shops are dying because they are now on ebay and people have no need for in person shops (although i like them). the high end cards are selling pretty well on the bay. i guess i will have to go find kids to give cards to.