The Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast: Cards Against Time

We collect ourselves, making our collections self-portraits. Episode 18 of The Rated Rabbi: Cards Against Time is “A 1/1 Life,” a deeply personal story about a chapter in my life that was so overwhelming that all I could do was take my oar out of the water and float downstream. It also a story about CC Sabathia who, in 2008, took Milwaukee, the Brewers, and me on a magical ride of pure escapism. Finally, it’s about this 2025 Topps Dynasty Sabathia 1/1 that now represents that time and those memories in my personal collection.

1965 Topps Rookie Stars Bill Davis. 1966 Topps Rookie Stars Bill Davis. 1967 Topps Rookie Stars Bill Davis. 1968 Topps Rookie Stars Bill Davis. 1968 Topps Rookie Stars Bill Davis. I got Bill Davis for days.

As we near the halfway mark of 2026, in this episode I highlight some of my favorite pickups this year. Some of the cards were on the 20-card list I made for myself coming into this year, some were originally "Do Not Buys," and some came out of nowhere to win a place in my heart and in my collection.

Inside me are two collectors. One is curious. Restless. Forever searching for the next. The other is patient. Disciplined. Enjoys what I have. Which one wins? The one I feed. But at times, I feed them both. Plus, a final update on my entering the cutthroat world of buying and selling soccer card "investments."

What happens when who you think you are as a collector turns out not to be not completely true? And you find yourself infatuated by, and aggressively bidding on, a card you never would have thought twice about before but then, for days, cannot get out of your mind? I had that exact experience last week. In this episode, I tell you the story.

Our collections are self-expressions. But our collections are not the self. They are like mandalas, offering temporary, symbolic arrangements of meaning. A self-portrait of objects. But not the whole person.

Simultaneity is one way of thinking about time, with all the events and experiences of our lives existing at once. In this episode, I am both here right now and, eternally, I am 10 years old. Opening a grocery rack of 1981 Topps builds a bridge to exist both then and now.

The inner journey of sports card collecting is my favorite part of the hobby. But, it's also true what my daughter says, "It’s not that deep, Dad.”Sometimes, a card is just cool. Or sometimes, you hear a story about a player that is just so terrific, so delphinophilically terrific, that a card of him merits a small place in our collections. This is one of those stories.

Leaving behind my familiar identity as a card collector who hobbies in my leisure time for pleasure, I invested in sports cards for the first time. But the cards I invested in weren't just any sports cards. With the 2026 World Cup approaching, I invested in soccer cards. Me. Soccer cards. This episode tells you all about it.

As a meditation, I spread out my collection on a table and then picked out my top 50. Then, my top 40. Top 30. 25. 20. 10. And then, I took it all the way down.