I participated in sports card Twitter and I feel all the worse for it

 Holy crap is the sports card discussion on Twitter toxic.

I don't use Twitter much. I actually never used it when it was allegedly popular. I knew zero people who used it here in Canada. It always seemed like a platform for celebrities and politicians to publicize themselves without using mainstream media, and for journalists and content creators to attract attention by getting a following and then redirecting that following offsite. If you didn't fall into one of those categories, it seemed pointless.

I joined a couple of years ago. I was actually on Bluesky way before, back when Bluesky was invite only and mostly black and queer voices. But I like to talk about old pro wrestling, and the Bluesky community for that niche is terrible. There is a strong community of older wrestling fans on Twitter that are fun to engage with, but I really just wish they would all move over to Bluesky. I barely used that Twitter account. I also had a Threads account the day it launched, but that platform felt like a living television commercial and I never enjoyed it. I have a burner account on TikTok, but I hoenstly don't get the appeal and feel that I am too old to understand. I don't use Facebook, although I was first on it back when it was university only in 2004. Yes, I'm old and growing older with each word I type.

I've been trying different social media platforms for sports cards. Bluesky has been my favourite, with the best engagement and the most like minded people. I'm using Instagram, but I find it boring. Instagram, however, is useful because a lot of local businesses post updates on their Instagram accounts, so that is at least one reason to use it. But I find there is little actual social interaction on Instagram and it feels more like looking at classified ads.

I decided to create a sports card account on Twitter. I figured it would suck, but I guess I'm a masochist. You're probably thinking I'm more of a moron than a masochist, and perhaps you are right. What I really wanted was to be able to stay updated with what's going on in the sports card world from a news perspective. Bluesky is great for discussing old cards and stuff, but it rarely feels like a breaking news sort of app.

Well, after being on Twitter a few days I no longer want to stay updated on sports cards. Nearly every user I have interacted with on there is someone who I would not want to meet in real life. It was a mix of people complaining about Fanatics anti-consumer practices (obvious solution is to stop buying their shit), men breathlessly masturbating over the high prices paid by other wealthier men for nonsense collectibles, and toxic, angry arguments about things like digital assets, scammers, social media influencers, and basically everything else.

I felt like I was in a room full of the grossest, dumbest people who all hate one another and have been driven to insanity by the collective stench they have created. 

Why are people so desperate for attention these days? It's weird. I see so many accounts posting "hot takes" with the obvious purpose of trying to get others to argue with them to boost their algorithm ranking. Why? I see female card collectors talking about how they like to walk around naked in their homes when they get back from work. Who cares? And all of these people are so greedy, to the point where I think none of them actually watch the sports they collect and are only interested in "breaking" and "flipping".

The best collectors are the ones who care little about cost and a lot about value. People who don't care if something is junk wax or in poor condition if it is something they enjoy. People who can actually discuss the details of the sports and teams they follow in a joyful and positive manner that is easily reflected in their collecting habits.

Twitter has none of that. You can feel the greasy, desperate greed of its users. These are people who badly want to be someone they are not and never will be, but think somehow they can get there by selling baseball cards. They would be better off spending a fraction of that money they are losing on therapy, and the rest of us would be better off for it.

Yes, I had expected it to suck, but I had figured it would be easy to steer clear of the nonsense and that I would find some accounts to follow that would simply provide news and updates about what is going on in the sports card bubble. But even those accounts spent huge amounts of time arguing with other users and complaining endlessly about every little thing that I realized Twitter has nothing to offer besides the feeling of being dunked into a septic tank head first.

I deleted my Twitter account shortly after joining, and then had a shower. 

Honestly, my preference is to have no social media. I've tried that in past, and it works okay. The problem is that so often you need to have at least an account somewhere to keep up with what's going on, even if it's a burner account that you never post on. It's the nature of the world we live in now.

I feel like a complete idiot for joining Twitter in 2026. At least I'm open minded enough to try new things, but smart enough to duck out when a bad idea is obvious. I value my time and mental health too much, even if sometimes I'm dumb enough to take a risk.