5+1 Q&A With David from @RatedRabbi

To David, aka @RatedRabbi, there’s just something about MLB All-Star Games, history, and storytelling. Sometimes, all three rolled into one.

David, host of the Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast, recently took the time to answer a few questions. He’s the second subject of the 5+1 Q&A series.

David, aka @RatedRabbi

Question zero: What do you consider your PC?

@RatedRabbi: There is a lot of truth for me in the saying, “In the end, what we collect is ourselves.” If there was a Platonic ideal for my personal collection, it would reflect an essentialist approach to collecting. Cards would make sense and would fit together to form an essential expression of not only my love of sports and nostalgic memories of players and teams, but of particular moments on my journey as a a collector. Essentialism in card collecting is one part learning to say “no” to cards that are cool but don’t fit my collection, one part figuring out which cards I do want and why, and one part having the self-discipline and patience to maintain a vision of the collection I want. 

To me, collecting is a spiritual practice. Having a great PC inevitably means some trial-and-error. I’ve bought cards and then realized they don’t fit or I don’t want them. I will sell them, even at a loss, to declutter and keep the vision clear. In the end, I want a small collection of beautiful and personally meaningful cards. 

I recently completed and have on display in my man cave a self-created, 80-card, PSA-graded Topps master set of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick. When I was 13, my dad took me and my brother to the game. Sixty players, 10 managers/coaches, five announcers, two honorary captains, two first pitches, and Joe DiMaggio, who the camera panned to in the seats early in the game. The journey of building this set inspired the idea for the Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast.

At some point down the vintage rabbit hole, I realized I wanted Willie Mays in every Bowman and Topps main release more than any other player in all the sets in which he appears. I’m a lifelong Giants fan and he was my dad’s favorite player. I’m working on a run of all of Mays's base cards plus some of my favorite combo cards of his. It’s a slow process.

I am two cards away (Justin Herbert and Tom Brady) from collecting the 20-card insert set of 2020 Panini Obsidian Football Supernovas in either 1/1 or /5. So far, I have 8 1/1s! I fell in love with this insert set when I got back into collecting during the pandemic. They’re die cuts with an Art Deco style. I think I also like them because no one else in the hobby seems to care much about them, certainly not the way I do.

I’ve got a very small collection of “Beautiful Ones,” PSA or SGC 1s. Because of major flaws like a tiny pinhole or paper loss on the back, I’m able to pick up cards with incredible eye appeal at a fraction of what they would cost me in higher grades.

I’m dabbling with collecting Nick Bosa. He’s my favorite 49er and plays my favorite position (defensive end). Because he plays defense (and is DPOY!), awesome cards like his National Treasures RPA, Gold Prizm, etc. are affordable.

I’ve also got a modest collection of unopened rack packs and cellos from the 70s and 80s. If I was an OG collector, unopened would probably be my lane. They present beautifully and take me back to being a kid and thumbing through rack packs in the toy store, looking for stars or 49ers or Giants on top.

Last, I am one card away (1952 Bowman Large #117 Jim O’Donahue) from completing a raw run of 1950s Bowman and Topps 49ers. I did it to learn more about the history of my favorite football team and to explore a form of vintage set building. It's been fun to learn about the history and to have lots of mail days, but I can’t see myself doing more vintage set building in the near future. Too many cards and players without meaning to me. After I get this last card, I’ll probably look to sell them off as team sets and will keep just the 1952 Bowman Large team set as a memory of the journey.

Q1: How, if at all, does history inform your place in the hobby? Some of the most interesting episodes of the Rated Rabbi Podcast are about vintage stars such as Willie McCovey and Hank Greenberg—even Candlestick Park itself. I've seen modern cards in your collection to go along with Satchell Paige and early team sets of the San Francisco 49ers. From an outsider's perspective, at least, it feels like history matters deeply to you.

@RatedRabbi: Cards tell stories, and history hugely informs my place in the hobby. For example, I have Sandy Koufax’s 1966 Topps in my PC and not his rookie card. Even though I was born years after he retired, I grew up with the story of how Koufax chose to observe Yom Kippur rather than to pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series. Not only was this his first card issued after making that decision, the 1966 is also his last base card. Because of an arthritic elbow, rather than risk permanent injury, Koufax retired at the peak of his power at age 30. But I can’t always afford cards with the most historic meaning. For example, I would love to have a 1941 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio, the year of his 56-game hitting streak. But in a condition I might stretch to afford, the registration is terrible. His face looks like a melted candle! 

When it comes to personal history, cards are generally in my price range. For example, my favorite baseball card is the 1978 Topps Reggie Jackson. It’s a perfect a baseball card to me. It captures Reggie’s essence and is the foundation stone of my card collecting — the premiere slugger of his time, at the peak of his power, coming off the three-homer game against the Dodger in the World Series, and the first year I collected.

Q2: Whether it's your Instagram posts or your podcast, you come across as a skilled storyteller. In your opinion, what makes for a good story?

@RatedRabbi: In my experience, we learn through story. As a rabbi, stories — be they inspired by sacred scriptures, rabbinical interpretations, or contemporary settings — are how we connect and find commonalities with each other, communicate messages that create shared understandings, and weave collective narratives that bind us together as communities. In their own way, cards are sacred objects and are the wonderful vehicles for stories. Through them, we find common interests, share understandings, and build deep community.

Q3: Other than the Koufax and your Reggie, please pick one other card from your collection—any card you wish—and share what it makes you feel beyond, "Hey, neat card."

@RatedRabbi: Some of my favorite cards contextualize a player or significant achievement, capturing in a photo or text a moment that transcends the card. For example, the back of the 1969 Topps Joe Namath describes the New York Jets upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. As big of a moment as it was — the Jets were 19.5-point underdogs to the Colts — Topps couldn't have known its lasting magnitude on the sport. Namath’s “guarantee” of a win is not only Broadway Joe's signature moment, the game itself quieted critics of impending AFL-NFL merger and launched a new era in the NFL.

A few more cards in my collection transcend the cardboard. I have a 1995 Pinnacle Deion Sanders Trophy Collection (Dufex rules!) that shows him high-stepping down the sidelines, staring down the Atlanta Falcons’ entire team on sidelines while running back a Jeff George interception for a 93-yard touchdown at the Georgia Dome. Deion had just joined the Niners, and it was his first game back at the Georgia Dome (his self-proclaimed “House that Deion Built”). When I look at that card, I remember the Super Bowl-winning 1994 49ers. Deion joined the team after the baseball season ended. He ended up only starting 12 games, but still won NFL Defensive Player of the Year and ran back three interceptions for touchdowns! To this day, Deion says the ’94 49ers were the best team he ever played on.

I have a 2011 Topps Finest Tim Lincecum Superfractor that I will take with me to the grave. I was fortunate to be able to purchase it from Lincecum super collector @the.tim.reaper, who has the single-greatest Tim Lincecum collection of all. When the Giants won the World Series in 2010, I knew the rest of my life would be different. Better. Easier, in a way. The Giants were World Series champs, Lincecum was their ace, and the back of this card tells that story.

I also have a special 2013 Topps Tier One Matt Cain Crowd Pleasers Autograph in my PC. With a photo of him raising a fist after the final out and the description on the back, the card captures Cain's perfect game against the Astros in 2012. It’s the only perfecto in SF Giants history, and the card connects me to those 2010-2012-2014 World Series-winning teams. #evenyears

But if I could only keep the number of cards that would fit in one hand, my 2012 Topps Buster Posey Trolley Car SSP would be one of chosen few.

What makes it so special to me is that the photo is of Buster on a Trolley Car, holding up the “Number 1" to the fans during the 2010 World Series parade. I was living in Cincinnati when the Giants beat the Rangers. My awesome wife found me a flight out of Indianapolis (a couple of hours away), and I flew out just in time for the parade. Standing with my dad, brother, uncle, auntie, and cousins and all the other fans was a dream come true. When manager Bruce Bochy rolled by in a classic Cadillac convertible with the World Series trophy on his lap, I just about lost it.

Oh, gee. I just saw you only asked for ONE OTHER CARD.

Q4: You've talked about discipline, trial and error, and the need to move on when a card doesn't fit the broader vision of your PC. I know I personally have gotten upset with myself when I suffer a lapse in discipline and commit an impulse buy. For lack of a more eloquent way of putting this, how do you feel when you make a bad purchase, and how do you respond to bad purchases?

@RatedRabbi: When I make a bad purchase, it happens almost exclusively because of a lack of patience. I try to not get too down or mad at myself. If I learn and grow from the process, that’s fine with me. When I make the same mistake more than once, I’m a little less forgiving of myself. Truthfully, "bad buys” are easier for me to shake off than the ones that got away. I’m still suffering inside from when I passed on a 2020 Panini Obsidian Supernova Tom Brady Electric Etch Blue Finite 1/1 because the seller and I couldn’t agree on the price. In retrospect, we weren’t that far apart on a number and now I might never see that card again. Still hurts.

Q5: What would you like your PC to look like in three years?

@RatedRabbi: Three years from now, I would like to have a PC that reflects me as a collector and as a human being. I want my collection to express an essentialist mindset in the pursuit of evolution but not perfection. For the most part, I would like fewer cards with more enduring meaning. 

At the same time, it’s hard to never have a mail day. I could see having fun building low-key, low-cost, mini-collections of, say, the 1978 Topps Baseball All-Stars (I love the all-star shield from that year) or trying to build a set of autographed 1984 Donruss Rated Rookies. Just as long as my collection doesn’t feel cluttered and everything makes sense to me.

+1 Question: Imagine a young family member approached you and said they want to start collecting cards, but they don't know where to start. How might you advise them?

@RatedRabbi: The first thing I would tell a young family member is 99.9 percent of cards produced are ultimately worthless. Buy carefully. Build YOUR collection, not what someone else tells you to buy. Second, FOMO is an illusion that exists only in the mind. There will always be another incredible card on the horizon. Be patient. Last, I would tell a young family member who wanted to collect cards to find ways to earn money outside of the hobby to help pay for purchases. Trying to fund the hobby through the hobby can make the hobby feel like work. Selling off cards from our collection to fund other purchases is a part of it, but playing the flip game is really hard. And if your connection to cards is dominated by the flip and if your flipping goes south on you, you don’t really have much else to keep you collecting.