Forgotten Hobby

I have discussed this many times, but where I live the hobby doesn't exist.

There are no card shows. There are no LCS'. There are simply no collectors.

You can go to yard sales and either find cards priced for too much because former collectors hadn't collected in years and didn't realize how much value their cards dropped or cards you could get for basically free. Like this one..

 

My sister-in-law had gone to a yard sale this summer and picked up this card along with some other items and went to pay. When she handed in this 1983 Drakes Cake card of Reggie Jackson the lady just brushed  it off to the side and added it to my sister-in-law's pile for nothing. Yes, nothing. 

Now, I know you can come across these cards on eBay for like $1, but still, in today's world, $1 is a $1.

This just continues to show me how much the hobby world in my area is continuing it's disappearance. Cards have become so irrelevant that even when I hand out freebies at my yard sales to kids (I try my best to get kids interested) you get looks from the parents like "you collect sports cards?" Had I handed the kids a free video game, they probably wouldn't have even took a second glance. I have also had other parents tell me no as they don't want the "clutter".

 

This is something 20 years ago wouldn't have been looked at this way. We had monthly card shows, 2 LCS' within reach and the hobby was booming with kids buying and trading. Pretty much every grocery store, gas station, pharmacy and even craft shops had some form of hobby relation. It was amazing.

Now I can only purchase cards at a Walmart an hour away or online. That's it. Completely a hobby ghost town/state.

It's a tough hobby world I live in physically. But, luckily, I have this online portion to feed off from. I have you guys the readers, I have Twitter and Facebook and I have other sites/promotions I visit and participate with. It keeps me excited and involved in the hobby. If I hadn't discovered the online world of collecting, who knows what would have happened.

How many of you experience this? I am sure I am not alone. How do you find ways to keep yourself involved in the hobby and excited to continue on collecting?