On Saturday night, I came upon a tweet from the Hive Cards account. It was strange because Hive had gotten into a lot of trouble and gone silent over the past month and a half. But this tweet was promoting a hobby box for Bowman Baseball.
Odd, I thought. I DMed the account and asked if he was back.
I first came across Hive when he was helping fundraise for another Twitter (also known as X) member whose wife had cancer. We had some pleasant exchanges, and he agreed to answer questions about a story I was writing.
He agreed to answer some questions in writing and get back to me in about a day or two. I sent him the questions, but he never got back to me. It stung a bit, but I had spoken to enough people for the story. Besides, I still admired him for helping out a fellow hobby member. I also knew he was just a college kid who had expressed some mental health struggles in some posts.
It’s Card Purchaser
To my surprise, I received a reply back from Card Purchaser, the owner of the Twitter handle with more than 88,000 followers. He had finalized the purchase of the Hive handle. But this wasn’t any ordinary purchase.
Hive had gotten in trouble a few months ago because he took a large number of cards on consignment. He sold the cards and paid the consignors but mailed out very few stacks. He also got in trouble for withholding winnings from a fantasy league.
When people started calling him out for failing to send cards, he replied that he didn’t have the money to ship the cards. Hive had somehow run out of money. It’s indefensible. But I couldn’t help but feel for the guy.
Card Purchaser sponsored one of Hive's Twitter buy/sell/trade threads. He also sponsored his podcast but was shocked by what happened with the consignment venture. He reached out.
"When I joined card Twitter in 2020, it was great," Card Purchaser told me. "Everyone was at home, talking about cards on social media. I shared what I had learned from being a collector and gained a huge following doing that.
"I didn't contact Hive Cards to bail him out. I contacted him because I saw all the people waiting on cards."
They came to an agreement. Card Purchaser would front Hive the money to ship the cards he owed in return for the account. They agreed Hive would get about two months to ship out the cards and tie any loose ends before handing the account over.
It was a sticky situation.
“I don't have any list of buyers and I'm not sure he did,” Card Purchaser said. “I checked up on his progress, and final payment was delayed weeks to get things shipped. I was told he sent 200 packages last month.”
This is The Hobby - Of Course There’s Controversy
The news was overwhelmingly well-received. People got their cards, and Hive was able to fulfill his business promises, albeit through unexpected means.This was a Twitter handle sale that most people could agree was a good thing.
But some people seemed concerned that someone else now had their name and address.
Card Purchaser wants people to know he doesn’t care about people’s names and addresses, and he will not use any of that information in any way.
Others saw it as a bail out for someone they considered a scammer.
“It just seemed like a bad situation with a simple solution,” Card Purchaser said. “A ton of people waiting on cards, a college student card seller with no money to ship the cards, just needed to get them shipped out.”
The Future of Hive Cards
While Card Purchaser has nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter, his takeover of the Hive handle gives him 26,000 more followers. It’s not an insignificant amount.
For now, he's exploring a few options with the new account. One idea is to use it to promote new products.
“I have to see what I think has a good chance of working and catching on,” Card Purchaser said. “It's possible I just use it as an account for new product drop alerts, so people don't have to sort through all my reposts [on @CardPurchaser] for that.”