The middle part of the 1990s took a major toll on the baseball card industry. All those ambitions of striking it rich off personal collections proved to be grossly overstated. The supply got out of hand, growing too large to keep pace with the anticipated values. There was also an MLB work stoppage, and a younger generation that didn't take so fervently to the hobby, forcing companies to fold and sending the industry reeling.
Over the past five years, however, baseball cards have experienced something of a renaissance. Those same kids who begged their parents for rides to weekend card shows throughout the 1980s and the early part of the 1990s were suddenly returning to the hobby, uncovering old boxes and buying new sets from companies that had finally grasped the value of limiting production.