Posted By:
Geoff LitwackI find that people outside the hobby tend to like the 1880s tobacco and 1930/40s non-sport material I have more than the baseball. Everybody likes Superman, for example.
But I do have to say: I've stopped trying to explain my obsession to girls I date. I live in Los Angeles, and a few years ago I met a screenwriter in a baseball card shop. We got to talking about our love lives - it's hard to find nice women in this wicked city, etc etc - and I asked him how he broached the topic of cards to his girlfriends (he was about to buy, I think, $1200 in T206s). He looked at me like I was crazy. "I keep them in a vault and NEVER talk about them," he said. "Seriously, girls would rather date an alcoholic than a guy who collects baseball cards. That's dangerous and sexy. Baseball cards are for nerds." I think he was right - since then I've been in the gum-card closet, so to speak!