Thanks man. This is great info.
No problem. I collected during the early to late 90s. Those cards are mostly worthless because they printed so many. My son got into it 2 years ago, so I had to relearn everything about the "new" hobby.
The way the card companies are getting around the huge base printing issues from the 90s (because even today they are still producing a lot of them) is to make "numbered cards" in addition to the mass produced regular base cards (and to make multiple products: Topps, Topps Chrome, Topps Update, Topps Pristine, Topps Finest, Topps Chrome Black, Topps Cosmic, Topps Heritage, etc.). All of your stuff from the era you collected (and mine) would be considered regular base cards.
Today, you may have a regular Aaron Judge base rookie card (maybe you got lucky and its a "10"), but this other Aaron Judge rookie card (from the same set, year, and product) has a green boarder and is numbered to only 200 copies. This other one has a purple boarder and is number out of 175. This one has a red boarder and is limited to 100. You can rinse and repeat until there is a 1 of 1 Aaron Judge rookie with a gold boarder. Obviously the lower the number print run, the more valuable; (this also makes grading these lower print runs less of a big deal, because there are already so few of the cards). And then you can have Judge sign some of them and make those limited numbers as well. And then you can add a game used piece of material and number those. And then you can combine the signature with the piece of material and number those. And then you can make an alternative action photo rookie card (now he is getting Gatorade dumped on him in the photo as opposed to him standing at the plate like the base rookie card) and number those. Around and around you go.
Again, this is a game the higher income folks can regularly play (or hardcore gambling addicts). Those really rare numbered Judge cards are most likely going to be found in packs of cards within boxes that sell for $600+. With no guarantee that you will pull any of them. Giant gamble.
Once these really rare cards get pulled, they can sell for a crap ton. But you and I aren't going to be buying a $150,000 Aaron Judge 1/1 signed rookie. At least I won't if I ever want to ever speak to my wife again. So the folks with the big bucks sell them back and forth and keep upping the value. It touches on being money laundering (like in the art world). Again, that's a game most of us can't play, but we can be lured in with the "chance" to pull a life changing card if only we come up with $600+ for a box of cards. Probably better off putting it all on red and letting the wheel spin.
That's why I said earlier that if you happen to be the guy who got a well made Munson rookie and you stored it in perfect conditions and then you grade it and it "10"s. Your scarcity happened by natural circumstances, not a manufactured scarcity. A card that rare will want to be bought by someone who can actively move it for more money. Munson's third year card that is a 7, 8 or 9? That's nice, but unless you get some sort of sudden Munson "meme stock" wave to ride on, you won't get anywhere near the numbers you hope.
