The tl;dr on what is happening is three fold.
-First, there was an explosion in the late 80s and 90s followed by a contraction - you saw mickey mantels going for $50,000 so now adults were getting in, sealing and grading cards. Basically too many card for things too be rare. That petered out at the end of the nineties, and so did interest in cards, the number of collectors & savers, and the print runs. Basically, cards are rare again and you now have some speculation internet superstars promoting them.
-Second, there has been a rise of "fractional" card ownership; basically its now completely about investing/speculating, not just a commodity to own or having that card.
-Third, you have a stock market worried about volatility - this is why you see JP Morgan buying buttcoin, its a non-duplicable fixed-quantity token to represent wealth. As
@Trip Chesterton III fund-manager for Scarboil* posted, its cards in very limited quantities that difficult to impossible to counterfeit.
*Per earlier analogies, if SA is the stone fetus of comedy, scar boil is the crusty kleenex of humor.
