I've spent a goodly amount on my collection over the years. I've also been lucky enough to have been able to make a profit off cans I paid peanuts for 10 - 20 years ago and turned around to buy some more expensive cans today. Sure I'd eventually like to make my money back off the cans I currently have, but I enjoy them and once I'm gone, I won't have to worry about their worth any more. I think someone will always collect cans, whether it be younger folks or whatever. If not, once we're gone, they'll be tossed back into the landfills where we once rescued them.

I would like to rephrase and expand on Chris's comment a bit.

Like most hobbies, what we collect has no intrinsic value. Unlike most hobbies, what we collect is, quite literally, garbage. At one point in time someone thought these cans were trash, threw them away and often buried them to get them out of sight. Any value placed on "the supply" is not only manufactured and artificial, but limited to an incredibly small number of aging individuals...."the demand". Once the demand goes, there will be a disproportionate supply, and that curve has a slippery slope right back to.....garbage.

Rand