I see this hobby as unique...
Unlike baseball cards, comics, etc. Those hobby's died simply because of gimmicks. When baseball cards were fun it was $2 for a pack of 15 cards and you hoped for a rookie. Maybe an occassional insert. And with that rookie you could possibly get a nice return. It was fun ! Then it became $4 for a pack of 5 cards. If you didn't get Babe Ruth's autograph or a slice of Mickey Mantle's pants, everything else was worthless ! It became NO FUN.
The gimmick with comic books was that it became less about the story and more about obnoxious, bright, holographic covers. No longer could you get your "Amazing Spider-Man" book for $2.00. Now their $3.95 because of the goofy covers.
Everyone on this site is savvy and already knows what Im talking about. I
Just see this hobby as different. No gimmicks. Just high quality items that you pretty much know what your getting. Plus the fact that most of these things we buy are extremely limited. Even something with a run of 2000 which I would consider a average number for sideshow. Considering there's pushing 7 billion people in the world ? That's not too many 1/6th Cobra Vipers to go around...