Weedy, you watch precisely enough Simpsons.
I'm sure the trends and focus in sports cards have been analyzed elsewhere, but card collecting is quite different now that it was in my youth (I was heavily into baseball cards for 5 or 6 years stating in the mid-80s). It seems more for collectors now and less for kids. Is that an accurate assessment, fraze? I think the downside of this is that it potentially cuts down on the opportunity for the card market to drive young fans to the game. I know part of my fervor for baseball was fostered in (misspent?) summers of my youth spent studying card after card, memorizing statistics, trading cards and flipping cards, etc. Back then, you could buy a complete set of all MLB players for maybe $20, and I would organize cards by team, by number, by my own rankings of greatness or coolness. I was doing "all hair teams" back when ESPN's Page 2 was a twinkle in some marketing consultant's eye. I would assume the current system is probably better for the card manufacturers and card/memorabilia dealers, but not as beneficial for the sports leagues themselves -- while licensing revenues may actually be higher, I would think that some of the long-term economic impacts of cultivating a fan base go missing. But kids these days, with their fancy internets and two-way email pagers, probably wouldn't be up for cards anyway. So I suppose maybe I am just that "Back in my day..." guy.
