I don't know about sports cards but I do know about MtG. MtG finance took off about a decade ago. Due to a couple of things. A newish format of play gaining massive popularity and an old format of play seeing a resurgence. Prices on cards that were promised to not be printed ever again spiked and it attracted investors. Some of it is silly in my opinion as some of those cards are junk and no one would realistically play with them. They are just super rare being from the earliest sets with much lower in comparison print runs.
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