A little off-topic here, but I've seen you mention the Trout cards and issues with it a few times now, and am curious what you're referring to. Always interested in hearing about things like this, so if you have more details I'm all up for it.
Nice, I'm always willing to help conversation.
First, Trout cards are not an issue, they (specifically Trout's key RCs like his 2011 Topps Update) are a drink-stirrer/game changer. The 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout completely changed the baseball collecting hobby and for the better. Here are a few points (I will use the term "current era" as 2012 to 2020 and "previous era" as early 00s to 2012):
1) The previous era is defined as the hobby having a two clear grading companies as prevalent (PSA and BGS), at least one major electronic market place (eBay, then later, others from FaceBook to various popular card trading forums), the major online dealers like DA Card World, and all brands/products having modern card producing techniques (full color fronts and backs, reasonable centering, gloss surfaces, good quality card stock, good cutting, etc. overall higher grade cards straight out of packs). Premium cards are prevalent with memorabilia and autos being easily obtainable if you buy two boxes. Super high end product available such as Exquisite exist. Best player in hobby is probably Derek Jeter or ARod.
2) In the previous era, the magazine-price guide Beckett Baseball top 20 hottest cards are all auto-rookies (such as from various Bowman products) and high end memorabilia cards. Once in a while a vintage card/player creeps in.
3) The current era, a lot of the products and cards are continuations of brands, products and bells/whistles from the previous era but with current era players. By far the best player is taken over by Mike Trout. Trout doesn't become the best player right away but after a couple years on the Angels he is the hottest player in all of baseball. Then keeping up this highest level of play for several years, he becomes the second coming of Mickey Mantle in many peoples' eyes while taking over the mantle of baseball's ambassador from Jeter.
4) At the beginning of the current era, the Beckett top 20 each month looks exactly the same as the previous era, just new prospect names. Autographed RC cards, mostly from Bowman product, dominate the list heavily. Usually top three to five hottest rookies' auto RCs make up 75% of the list with the last 25% being the first signed RCs of the next five hottest prospects. ...plus Mike Trout's un-signed, normal Topps base card RC from 2011 Topps Update.
5) Meanwhile in hockey, since 2006, the Hockey Beckett top 20 is 80% unsigned, non-parallel, non-memorabilia, non-numbered base rookie cards from the last several years' UD base brand product. These cards are from the same subset brand, the strongest sub-brand in all of sports cards, available even in retail product: Young Guns (driven by Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin YGs from 05-06).
6) As each year passes in the current era, Trout's RC continues to explode in growth as each triple-crown caliber season he adds, the card grows exponentially. It eventually passes the $100 for a base card, as a raw copy! As it increases, grading for the card increases and the idea of the collectability a regular Topps base card RC increases. Deep in the heart of old school collectors, there is much rejoicing as they quickly embrace a paradigm that mirrors the golden age of baseball card collecting...the 1980s where base card RCs from Rickey Henderson 1980 Topps to 1989 UD Ken Griffey Jr. was the foundation of collecting. The entire hobby begins to put heavy emphasis on Topps base RCs of top players as "the card to have" of a player.
7) By 2017, this comes to a head...Trout is the heir apparent as the best and top hobby player in baseball to Derek Jeter. However, the heir apparent to the Yankees faithful, Aaron Judge has his rookies issued. As he bashes each homer in the MLB, the common Yankee and Judge fan wants his 2017 Topps Aaron Judge RC from Series 1 more and more, and as each product comes out, especially they key ones with important base cards such as 2017 Topps Chrome and Topps Heritage, the Judge rookies drive demand and lead a robust rookie class. As Trout and Judge collectors drive both ends of the collector base, collectors start to focus on other Topps base cards from other top rookies in the class (like Bregman, Swanson and others), other future prospects who will have their cards coming in future 2017 products like Cody Bellinger. On the other end, collectors retroactively begin hunting current stars and future HOFers cards in Topps base such as Clayton Kershaw.
8) The entire demand shifts paradigm. While auto rookies still command top dollar, the greatest demand, copies-wise, is for base RCs for Topps (S1, S2 and Update) and Topps Chrome. In the previous era, these base cards top out at $5 and usually above average rookies have their base RCs valued at $2 or less. Now, it's not unheard of for a proven prospect or a super-hype prospect (like Ohtani) to have double-digit base RCs. Grading of base RCs with BGS goes through the roof. A lot of that spills over to PSA as well. Retroactively, future HOF players go to double and eventually triple digits. The hobby rejoices as many, many collectors either switch or come back into the hobby to collect their fave players' base RCs, just like in the 80s. The Baseball Becket top 20 is 90% base cards, all RCs of players/prospects both past and present. Demand for high grade copies of these base cards often match or top the raw copies of autographed RC cards.
9) In hockey (2018), raw copies of Sidney Crosby's Young Guns from 05-06 UD Series 1 surpasses the $1000 mark on eBay and other online sales platforms. Sales are driven by the Pens winning a 3rd Cup during the Crosby era. The RAW copy!
10) Mike Trout's raw 2011 Topps Update base RC surpasses $500. In 2020, the Wuhan virus time, it surpasses $1000! (currently about $1600). Many other top players' Topps base RCs go from the dollar bin to double to triple digits as well, over the last few years, especially those from Topps Update.
