Pirates of the Spanish Main

I am considering getting into this game, mainly because I like Pirates and have been looking for a good Pirate game! My oldest son is 12 years old and plays the games with me, he likes pirates too... However, we tend to steer clear of card games and also 'collectible' games (meaning ones you get screwed and cant find certain items without hitting local scalper shops).

I remember when this game first came out, people in the FLGS were going nuts, buying hundreds of packs and spending hundreds of dollars. I certainly don't want to get into that kind of a situation.

I have also been hearing some pretty heavy rumors that WizKids doesn't have long left as a company, there have been some whispers around the net and I have read a few posts that suggest this game won't be around for long.

With that all being said, the 'card' game thing isn't really a factor since it isn't really a card game, I mean, it isn't like Magic or one of those, and has the 3-d ships, so that is a nice change... If the game is cancelled, or WizKids does go belly up, is there enough stuff out to fuel this game for the long haul, or will I get into it feeling like I was cut short of having a great game?

But my main question (and I have not looked into this at all so I thought I'd hit up the question here and hope to get a reply from one of the experts!), what kind of price do the 'rare' cards demand? How rare is rare? What is the going rate for cards from the older sets? I'll start checking out ebay, but I want to learn a little bit here first from people who are into it as a game and not as a money maker!

Thanks in advance!