Sports Card Twitter/X vs Bluesky vs Threads

About ten days ago there were murmurs of Hobby Twitter/X trying to move over to Bluesky, a relatively new open-source social network started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. I’ve seen this attempted migration before (does anyone remember the attempt to shift to Threads earlier in 2024?), so I was naturally skeptical. I created an account because I’m a sucker for social media, but it felt pretty barren.

And then more and more people were posting on Twitter about leaving for “the other app” — there are rumors that mentions of competing apps are blocked or throttled on Twitter — and including a screenshot of their Bluesky app. (Image text can be read by algorithms, too, so saying “the other app” and including your Bluesky profile screenshot, as I did, is futile.)

I hopped back over to Bluesky and it was surprisingly active with hobby folks. A lot of my favorite accounts were there and posting regularly.

Bluesky is appealing because Twitter has become littered with bots, irrelevant ads, and anger, and Bluesky doesn’t have those things.

Yet.

Twitter’s For You tab — a feed cultivated by the algorithm of things it thinks you’ll like — now only feeds you a small percentage of things you’ll like, and delivers mostly high-engagement political posts that I have zero interest in, or unrelated videos. I used to get the bulk of my Clearing the Bases items from the For You tab.

Bluesky feels very much like Twitter felt a couple of years ago. It will inevitably get some of those things eventually. But can it keep them largely at bay? I don’t know, but I’m willing to try.

It’s not perfect. You can’t save a post yet, which is critical for my Clearing the Bases series. I can’t embed a post here in my newsletter. (Probably more a thing for my newsletter provider to address.) And the ultramodern crowd isn’t there, which makes my CTB searching difficult. (But also, isn’t that better?)

And there are other little things that aren’t great yet. But it feels fresh, and it feels active.

I posted a few things on Bluesky and got more legitimate engagement from my 200 followers than I get from my 1,100 followers on Twitter.

Meanwhile, I posted to Threads, where I have 332 followers, and got virtually zero engagement.

If you’re interested in seeing and talking about cards, Bluesky might be for you.

People seem to be agreeing.

1/1? Are You Sure About That?

Daniel sent me this “1/1” that has 2 copies:

I put them side-by-side so you can see they’re two different cards. I’m not sure what I’m missing here. The autograph on the right is clearly more to the right. It’s two different cards, right?

1/1? You sure about that?

The 1952 Topps Mantle Doesn’t Need to Be Propped Up

Longtime viewer Jake sent me this amazing hobby time capsule of a video from the 1988 Greater Boston Sports Card Show.

A little after the 6:00 mark is this dealer very awkwardly trying to prop up a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle to make sure it’s caught by the camera:

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

From my Sunday Clearing the Bases episode, where I talked about how it’ll probably be a creepy middle-aged man taking Livvy Dunne up on her bounty offer:

🎬 Upcoming Videos

• A response to John Mangini’s “If I were hobby president” prompt.

• Attic Find Friday

• #84-80 of my ACE 100 list

• Maybe a short video on the tiny card show I attended briefly on Sunday

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

• Are eBay sales down?

• Topps and the worsening collation

• I am still trying to get a quote from Andy Broome about the newly-discovered T206 card. Some net54 users are convinced that it’s a fake, so I am editing the original article to highlight their concerns. CGC reportedly had layoffs last week, so I’m not holding my breath for a response but won’t stop trying.

• And more!

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

I’ve been seeing a lot of “THE HOBBY IS DYING” videos and tweets, so I did a response:

The best part is that I just grabbed the same thumbnail from last year’s response video and added dates.

I followed that up with this:

The hobby is not dying.

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

It wasn’t a terribly expensive one, but it was still exciting:

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

I watched The Faculty Saturday morning. Insane cast! Check out the actors who were early in their career there. A little like Freaks & Geeks, where a ton of now-famous comedic actors got their starts.

Jon Stewart plays teacher Mr. Edward Furlong. Actor Edward Furlong, of course, played a character in Terminator 2, who was chased by the T-1000, who was played by Robert Patrick. Robert Patrick played the football coach in this movie.

I remember when I would see this screen and know I was going to see a fun movie:

This one was fun, I guess. Just weird and too formulaic.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

🔗 Links:

Sports Card Prices are Falling: Is It the End?

After Tom Brady Signing Fiasco in Miami, Collectors Still Looking for Answers

APD: Altoona man allegedly fractured other man's skull during argument over baseball cards

Billionaire Greg Lindberg pleads guilty to a $2 billion insurance fraud scheme

And Paul Lesko’s baseball card / meme mashup thread: