Clearing the Bases: What Happened?

I received a lot of messages when Clearing the Bases didn’t show up Sunday morning as expected. Not everyone sees a community post on YouTube. I am extremely grateful for these messages. It tells me that what I do is valued.

So, what happened? Well, it was a confluence of events.

Streamyard has been performing poorly for me recently, so I moved to Restream. Restream worked well the first time I used it, so I tried it again Sunday morning. Everything seemed to go great until I downloaded the video and discovered that it was blank.

No audio, no video.

I reached out to Restream and they had no answers, so I canceled that subscription too. I may need to go back to Streamyard, but I’m open to ideas.

In the meantime, I may try and recreate the video on Monday. We’ll see.

Paid Subscriptions Didn’t Work Out

I already emailed those who upgraded, but I didn’t receive enough upgrades to make it sustainable. It was very disappointing but I’m moving on. I refunded those who upgraded.

I could’ve kept grinding and marketing it and trying to add more subscribers, but it was a failure. Fail fast.

I still love the newsletter and will keep doing it. I might focus my extra time and efforts on rejuvenating the Attic Finds book I vacated under duress a couple of years ago. We’ll see.

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

I’m not saying that I agree with this comment, but I’m not not saying it.

🎬 Upcoming Videos

• Attic Find Friday will continue

• Peak nostalgia viewer responses

• #29-25 of my ACE 100 list

• A subscriber’s killer music card collection — I keep putting this one off because it’s big and intimidating

• Amazing ticket collection

• Subscriber collection rooms

Yeah, these are piling up, but I cleared a couple out last week and I’ll try to do the same this week.

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

• Missing Caitlin Clark card in Panini checklist?

• 22-year TTM wait

If you have a cool story about collecting for either a video or newsletter, please send it to me.

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

The return of Attic Find Friday was fun!

And I had a pseudo-AFF interview that was fun:

Midlife Graig doesn’t read newsletters, but I have him to thank for me doing AMAs and I really enjoy them:

Me: “Derek Jeter was an all-time great!”

Some commenters: “HOW DARE YOU SAY HE WAS TERRIBLE?!”

I asked Kenneth what facts I got wrong. I’ll report back if he responds. None of what he said constitutes a fact. I think what he’s upset about is my opinion that Derek Jeter was overrated by the media, which, as I said, isn’t Jeter’s fault.

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

Weekend of Mike was a huge success, to say the least. I ate a lot of junk food and watched a ton of horror movies. In order:

Smile 2: this series has become a must-watch. One of the greatest opening scenes ever. 4 out of 5 stars.

What You Wish For: really unique and surprising. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Strange Darling: same as above, unique and surprising. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Speak No Evil: this is why I’m antisocial. Perfect for what it is. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: the original slasher somehow holds up after 50+ years. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory: more peak nostalgia. Not horror, you say? Isn’t it, though? 5 out of 5 stars.

🔗 Links:

Arrest warrant issued for man accused of stealing $22K in baseball cards

Topps Gold Logoman Cards: The Next Big Chase in Game-Worn Patch Collecting

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Wholesome Autograph Routine

On this date in sports history: On March 17th, 1955, Maurice Richard was suspended for the remainder of the season for attacking an opponent with his stick and hitting a referee in the head. Riots broke out around Montreal, and Richard had to go on the radio the next morning to ask people to stop.