Let me guess.........Judge, Ohtani, Trout and whomever hit a home run last night. Correct?
You are corect in there are a lot less collectors post Pandemic and set builders are very hard to find. I have a very tough time making trades since 90-95% of the topics are 2026 baseball and I don't do anything with ultra modern cards. Much like after the junk era craze most people Post Pandemic realized buying cards retail was a horrible investment. And much like the Post Junk Era, many, many of these grifters are long gone from the hobby.
Throw in the cost of postage and trading really gets hurt. I have a 900 count box mailed to me in 2006 from Massachusetts to Upstate NY that weighed nearly 4 lbs. (3lbs 14.60 oz to be exact) The cost was $5.60 Priority. I shudder to think what that would cost now. Certainly it would be more than the cards in the 900 count box are worth today. With postage being so much it is better to find good buys instead of trading in many cases.
So you'll never see monthly numbers like those ever again.