re: Are baseball cards still a thing?

The card bubble really is an interesting thing to research. As far as baseball goes, the strike that cancelled the WS played a big part in the drop in demand. Older and more rare cards weathered that storm. The sports card industry as a whole took a hit because of the quantity being produced and the fad that UD started with inserts. Nobody cared about the base set unless it was a particular player like Kobe Bryant. Then if you wanted to make big time money you had to get everything graded. I was slinging PSA 10 Kobe Chrome's for $1800 left and right. Even more if I pulled the Triumvirate insert. That's just a good example of a bubble waiting to pop.