After two weeks of going dark because a hacker hijacked our YouTube channel and Gmail account, we finally regained control and our brains are clearer because of it!
Well, I’m back.
Build a better sports card collection on a real-world budget — that’s what this whole Happy Hobby world is about, and for two weeks, I genuinely didn’t know if I’d get to keep doing it.
If you missed it: my YouTube channel got hacked. Not just the channel — my Gmail too. When those two things go down at once, your entire digital life goes down with them. For a few days, somebody else was me. It took almost two weeks to untangle it.
Here’s the story, what it cost me, and what’s changing going forward for the channel, the podcast, and this newsletter.
How It Happened!
It was 3:30am on a Friday — June 12th, a date that’s now burned into my brain. I have trouble sleeping sometimes, so I got up, sat down at my computer, and started going through email. There was a message from someone wanting me to join their advertiser network — connect your YouTube, they match you with sponsors, that kind of thing.
This wasn’t unusual. As the channel grew past 9,000 subscribers, I’d been getting more outreach like this. I’d used legit tools before — VidIQ, Opus Clip — that ask for the same kind of YouTube access. So I Googled the company, found a real-looking website, started signing up, and connected my YouTube.
Within 60 seconds, I was locked out of everything. Gmail, YouTube, gone. It was instant, and I knew immediately I’d made a mistake.
Whoever did this didn’t just lock me out — they changed my recovery email, my recovery phone number, everything. Fast, practiced, methodical.
This wasn’t his first time.
This wasn’t just a stolen email — it was stolen identity. A police report had to be filed, in case further issues develop with our credit, bank accounts or tax information.
It was a nightmare!
What I Lost
Almost everything tied to that Google account, which I’d had since 2011:
* 15 years of Gmail and contacts
* Google Keep — where I kept 100+ video and article ideas, years of sports card history research, website plans, podcast season plans
* Google Sheets — every spreadsheet I had (and I love my spreadsheets!)
* Every account I’d ever signed into with “Continue with Google”
* The backup codes I’d saved for account recovery — which, ironically, I’d also stored in Google Keep
That last one still makes me laugh. Write your passwords down somewhere safe that isn’t tied to the account that just got stolen. Use different passwords for different things. I know how obvious that sounds. I learned it the expensive way anyway.
My YouTube channel got fully shut down a couple of days later for “violations,” which actually turned out to be a small blessing — the hacker could no longer use my channel, and he’d already posted a live stream of an Elon Musk SpaceX video with a sketchy QR code in the corner. If you ever see something like that: don’t scan it. Apparently that’s exactly how this kind of thing spreads further.
Give Me Back My Channel!
After days of thinking I was done with sports card content creation (I wasn’t going to start over!), I got some hope via X/Twitter!
I tweeted @TeamYouTube, explained what happened, and they walked me through a recovery form — though even finding my own YouTube ID (different from my handle) took digging through old emails I could barely access.
Our buddy Patrick Imhoff — the VP of the Happy Hobby world, and someone I’d given limited posting access to once while I was traveling — posted a video for me explaining the situation to you all, then deleted his own access afterward so the hacker couldn’t use him as a backdoor. That was a genuinely selfless move and I owe him for it.
Slowly, things came back. Gmail first, which was the biggest relief because it unlocked Keep and Sheets and everything else. Then, a few days later, YouTube flipped back on — at 11pm on a Friday night, of all times, which meant two videos I’d spent a long time on got auto-posted back-to-back and basically wasted (see The Dandy Dozen Vintage Baseball video below!).
You can’t plan for everything.
The Community Made This Bearable
While all this was happening, I told the Substack readers in the chat what was going on as soon as I could. The response was honestly overwhelming — people reaching out, people sad to see the channel possibly gone for good, people just being kind.
It felt like writing a eulogy for something that wasn’t dead yet, and that’s a weird feeling. But it also reminded me why this whole thing is worth doing. This is a genuinely good community. People are kind to each other here. That’s not nothing.
This is a genuinely good community. People are kind to each other here. That’s not nothing.
What This Forced Me to Notice
For the first time since the late ‘90s, I wasn’t creating something every single week. No video, no podcast, no newsletter to get out the door. That’s been my rhythm since I wrote fantasy sports newsletters for my league, fantasy articles for CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, and now 5-plus years of creating Happy Hobby card-collecting content.
With that pressure gone for two weeks, I unwound. I read more physical books. I spent more quality time with my wife Shelby. I connected more with my mom, who recently moved in with us.
It was a rough way to get there, but it was a real reminder that all this content creation — which I love — takes a lot out of the week.
What’s Changing Going Forward
I’m not starting over, and I’m not stopping. But it’s going to look a little different:
* Fewer, less-produced videos. Less of the heavily edited, cards-flying-in style videos, more of me just talking with you — sharing what I’ve learned, rankings, research. The podcast, video, and newsletter are converging into one combined post, which I was already moving toward.
* A rebrand. The YouTube channel is moving from “David Gonos” branding to Happy Hobby Sports Cards as the primary identity going forward. I’d wanted to do this for a while but worried about disrupting the algorithm. Well — starting from near zero now, there’s no better time.
* More tools for paid subscribers. I’m leaning into the apps and tools I’ve been building for budget collectors — things that stay valuable long after they’re published, unlike a video that has a short shelf life before people stop searching for it. Paid subscribers will start seeing more of these.
* Buddy breaks continue. We just posted one on the 2026 Topps Series 2 Hobby Box, and that’s not going anywhere.
* Selling off some of the collection. Partly a security decision — I’ve shown enough of what I own on camera, and I don’t want to be more of a target than I already am. (For what it’s worth: I sold my 1992 Stadium Club Michael Jordan Beam Team for the most I’ve ever sold a card for, which softened the blow considerably.) Keep an eye out — more is coming up for sale.
One Ask From You!
I’d like to bring in some other voices for the newsletter. If you’ve ever wanted to write something for the Happy Hobby Sports Cards Substack, let me know — email me at [email protected]. Pitch me an idea. Show me you can put some sentences together! Do you already have a Substack about sports cards? Pitch me an idea for an article where we all benefit — you, me and the Happy Hobby readers!
Finally, Thank You!
Thank you for sticking around, for the kindness while this was falling apart, and for wanting this thing to come back. It’s not really about me — it’s about the community we’ve built here. I’m just glad I get to keep being part of it.
I’m back. Thank you, Happy Hobby.
Have you ever been hacked or had something you love hijacked or stolen for a period of time? How did you handle it?
If you enjoyed this post about great baseball rookie cards, check out these posts you might have missed:
🏆 BEST ROOKIE CARDS FROM EVERY YEAR! 🏆
We list the best rookie cards from each flagship release in all four major sports since the 1950s.
The Happy Hobby Sports Cards World
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Happy Hobby! Build a better sports card collection on a real-world budget!
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