I know it’s not this black & white, but I think of the Pokemon market with 3 main participants:
Collectors
Players
Flippers/Investors
I have no doubt Collectors and Players are as into collecting & playing as they ever have been. Flippers/investors? Now that there aren’t as many easy big money making opportunities in the hobby, I suspect this is the group that’s decreased most significantly.
In 2 years flippers have gone from fighting over cards in parking lots, to now attempting to return sealed product to the pokemon center. Oh how times have changed