OT. Wives
 

My wife has no intrest in what I collect.She supports me having a hobby,but has no intrest at all.
Last week for our wedding anniversary she bought me a matted and frammed photo of Ebbets Field from 1913 with a score card from the first game.They are both reproductions,but I love it.
She works with disabled kids and last night her employer had a charity dinner.
When she got home she told me they had a lot of sports stuff in the silent auction.She threw me a bag and told me she won this for me.It was a Ted Williams jersey.Its a reproduction,but really cool.
It really blows me away that she got these things for me.
Has anyone else had there wives or girlfriends get them anything they didn't expect?

Steve,

Nice!

Take care of her; you don't realize how good they are to us until they are gone.

Craig M.

Yup, I agree, I have had a few wives and I didn't realize how good it was till they were gone.:D

My wife is the exact same.

Let me guess, you get so excited about a great deal you got, and you HAVE to tell her cause you love her and want her to experience it to, so you start the conversation ff with, "I know you don't care but...."

:):):)

Yep, I know exactly what you are experiencing.

My wife doesn't just buy me stuff on her own due to the fact she doesnt know what I already have. But what she does do is look thru our "Watch List" on EBAY and tells me on Birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's, Etc... that I can get them.
Also, she just, this last weekend, got her incentive check, and told me I can take $100 and buy what I want. She is in Branson right now, so when she gets back, i will verify AND GO SHOPPING!!!!

You and I are pretty lucky huh!

My ex......always thought I had enough and didn't need to keep spending money, but 30 pairs of shoes in the closet were never enough, and I did love to point out the many clothes she had hanging that still had all the tags on these.

Thus she is my ex, and I still have my stuff.

Board members here have some very nice wives.

Mine couldn't care less about bb cards, but she does tolerate me. I get the look, the exhale and hip shift as she listens.

About a year ago I was kinda upset about an ebay seller listing a 1915 CJ as a 1914 who wouldn't change the ad. I was complaining as usual and my wife looked at me and spit out the two major differences in the 2 years and I almost cried I was so proud...she even rolled her eyes when saying it like it was something everyone should know. We got a bunch of keepers here.

As Sondheim's great line goes, "It's not so hard being married. I've done it three or four times."

That is so funny...I could have posted that word for word...


I got a good one as well...she has always been supportive and on holidays/birthdays always asks for a few "wish cards" and does her best. I know I've mentioned this hear a few times but the day I turned over the profits from selling a 57 Topps set to pay for the adoption of our newest daughter was the day Baseball Cards now hold a place of respect in our house.

My wife is a collector of modern cards. She does buy me cards, but I haven't got her to buy me anything vintage or prewar just yet. When she does get me packs of modern cards they are usually Turkey Red, Allen & Ginter, or other sets mimicking the older ones. I have caught her looking at Mickey Mantle and 1934 Goudey cards, so I may be getting some vintage stuff in the near future.


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The only card my wife ever bought me was a 75 Nolan Ryan, 5 years ago, not in the best condition, but I still have it. She does support my habit, feel very fortunate.

My wife supports my hobby as well, but has zero interest in it (probably a good thing, lol). Has no problem with my purchases but would never go looking for a card for me. She might snag a Yankees item/shirt from a sports collectibles store, but never actively search out a particular card on the web that I wanted.

Anyone want to trade wives? Mine gives me grief when I go to a Baseball Fantasy Draft on a Saturday..............

Great story, John...thanks for sharing. Adoption is a great thing...you guys rock! :)

When we were dating my wife was dismissive of my cards. She never looked at them, nor did she ask how much I spent on them (good thing). She'd just make comments like, "They're just cardboard. I don't get it". Then one day she decided to look at them, and the first card she picked up was a T205 Eddie Collins. She said, "Oh, I like this." I knew I could continue to indulge myself at least until we got married!

After we were married she got an idea of how much my cards were worth, and she went through a phase where she tried to get me to sell them, in particular my T206 Cy Young portrait, which I will have surgically sewn inside of me before I put it on the market. But then not much later she saw my T206 Jerry Downs and fell in love with the colors and gave off on the "Sell them" routine.

Last month she picked up the Zappala's "The T206 Collection" that I'd gotten out of the local library. She was thumbing through it and said to me, "Some of these really are so appealing. I think you need to get the portrait card of this Walter Johnson guy". I'm deciding to obey my wife without question on this one.

My wife likes looking at the '38 Goudey Heads up cards I get it. She laughs when she sees the big heads. We were in an antique mall yesterday and saw a picture and said "Isn't that Walter Johnson?" I was a happy camper.

How many wives actually know how much their husbands sports card/memorabilia collectionn is worth? For that matter, do many of us actually know what our collections are worth?

My wife doesn't really care about my collection, I just hope she doesn't give it away if something should happen to me.

I cant really endorse them. :cool:

My wife says since this is my only real vice why complain. I go to work every day, come home every night and pay all the bills so if this makes me happy why not.

Since I admittedly have a bit more into my cards than I should, relative to other resources, she knows about as well as I do how much they are worth.

Also, she knows I collect tobacciana and helps with that when we go to antique stores and malls. She's been really good about the collection and knows I enjoy it a lot. That being said, sometime in the next years I will probably sell some of it to put my daughter through college. I consider it part of our savings..as she does.

My wife is a Penn State Alumni and a huge fan. She didn't give me any grief when I purchased any of my 3 Joe Paterno 1950 Topps Felt Back cards.

My wife is always bringing things home for me. Just about every weekend she hits the tag sales and the thrift stores. Last week she brought home a Macgregor Willie Mays glove made in the USA and just yesterday brought home a vintage 1970's Pittsburgh Pirates jacket

My wife knows what my collection is worth but still thinks I'm crazy. However, she has assisted in my craziness by buying me (with help, but generally not from me) at least the following cards, and has pitched in money for me to buy some others, so I think I'll keep her. :)

Lololol

Classic......so true.

Hahahahahahaha.... now that was good!

My wife can pronounce Lajoie correctly.

While my wife has no real interest in my collection, her dad designed the World Series trophy (he worked for Balfour before he passed away in 1976) as well as several other baseball awards and the Chrysler Eagle, so she is a keeper!!

My wife collects 1940 Playballs. So you could say she tolerates my occasional purchase. :)

My Wife is the Best!
 

My wife is the one who encouraged me to get back into collecting and to put together my T206 set. She would get a little pissy at times when the mailbox was stuffed with bubble mailers, but overall, she's been great with my collecting.

She's come to a couple of card shows and got a kick out of seeing some of the real old stuff. She even chatted it up with Dan McKee once at a show.

For the past two years, she's bought me season tickets to the Nationals - one seat for me, one seat for her. We have a good time going to the games even if she isn't into baseball all that much. This past Christmas, she also got me an autographed, game-used Bryce Harper bat to go along with the season tickets. How do you beat that?

http://www.t206blog.com/wp-content/u...nats-park2.jpg

Good point. I would say that I have a decent idea of how much my pre-war cards are worth, but post-war is another question. I was born in 1975 and have a brother who is ten years older than me. When he stopped collecting I got his 1970s Topps sets, which I held onto. Couldn't really tell you how much they're worth, especially as I've never had any of them graded, and there are some potential 8s and 9s of HOFs. I do however, have a pretty good idea what my late 1980s Topps cards are worth! :eek:

My wife has looked at eBay a few times to see how much some of my cards, like Babe Ruth, are going for. I'm just afraid I'll come home one day and she'll be mailing out my cards to the highest bidder. Which might even be me.

No.

My wife has been extremely supportive of my hobby. It also helps that she is as big a sports fan as I am. She always says that there are worse things that I could waste money on.

The card that she surprised me with was a card that I've always wanted, a 1914 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson. Apparently the owner of the card came on this board looking for advice http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ck+joe+jackson. This was a little before I knew of this board. Anyway, he listed it on ebay and I was a little skeptical to fork over that kind of money since I was relatively new to prewar collecting and heard horror stories of fakes. Anyway, I passed as he had it listed for $2000 and re-listed it the next time with a starting bid of $800. I still passed. She kept asking me why I just didn't take a chance. I kept telling her that if it was real, most people would have sent it off to be authenticated before putting it on ebay.

My wife however contacted him after the auction ended and offered him $600 if he would guarantee that it would be guaranteed authentic by SGC or Beckett. He agreed to her offer and the rest is history. She presented it to me as an early Christmas present. I immediately sent it off to be authenticated. It now proudly resides in my study and by far, my most prized card.

Jason and Frank, definitely keeper wives. Leon, if you ever ditched your wife you'd be a fool for two reasons, (1) because she allows you to feed your habit and (2) because she does know how much it's worth :eek::p

John, too funny about biddinng on your own Ruth....

My wife supports my collecting hobby, and I support her in her career/hobby in music.

James Buchanan, Jr.; Dickinson College 1809; bachelor.


Attachment 135670


James S. Gross; Dickinson College 1982; bachelor.


Although I've never lived with any former Vice Presidents (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Sounds like a keeper!

My wife bidded on a T3 that I listed on eBay. She has no clue my ebay id was but I know she tried to win that for me as my b-day present.

I like that Joe Jackson card but how could the card stays intact with the bottom left portion of the card so damaged up. Amazing.

My wife tolerates me and my collection. :) She has no clue what my collection is worth. (not a whole lot of $) It's worth a lot to me by keeping me sane. She humors me when I show her a new Hogan card when I find one an get lucky enough to win. Now that we have a little more expendable income, I asked her if I can buy more cards. She said "what ever makes you happy dear". I have good wife. She did say that she would burn them after I'm gone tho.:(

My ex-wife still to this day doesn't know how much I spend on baseball cards! :)



Jantz

My wife knows I spend a decent amount on cards, but she doesn't care. She knows as long as I don't bankrupt us, everything's okay. She doesn't really get into my cards, but she does like looking at them and at least acts like she cares. She knows exactly what is going on when we get a few bubble mailers...card central! She knows how much this hobby means to me, so in turn, it means a lot to her because it makes me happy. I would much rather be on this website or researching cards/sports than at a bar, etc., I'm sure it gets on her nerves when I'm glued to the computer for a few hours at a time, but it's a give and take kinda thing. I don't mess with her stuff and she let's me do what I want. Overall I'm very blessed to have her...not every wife is as understanding and accepts thousands of dollars spent on cardboard. To say the least, I'm a happy man :D

My wife is awesome!! She always encourages me to "get a card or two" because she knows how happy they make me. When I haven't picked one up in awhile, she will tell me "you need a card, find one"!! :D So, she's bought me a few cards over the years. And, she always enjoys seeing the new pick up, asks great questions, and knows quite a bit about them (T206's) now. She doesn't care about what they are worth, because she understands it's a hobby for me.

I have a winner, and am blessed :)

Sincerely, Clayton

Hi Jason,
I'm going to show your post to my wife, who is also a Nationals fan, and gently suggest that she is a slacker in comparison to your wife! My wife likes to go to Florida for a couple of weeks each winter to get away from the cold, and she always entices me by suggesting we go to a couple of spring-training games. This year, we saw the Nats' opening-game win over the Mets and their win over the Marlins in their third game. My wife has no interest in my card collecting, but she fully accepts that it's this "affliction" that keeps me going in my retirement years.
Best,
Val

After I took the boys to Cooperstown in the fall of 2011, my wife encouraged me to re-enter the hobby when she saw my eyes light up as I showed her the pictures of the cards in the hall. A few years and several thousand dollars later, she tells me that I can slow down at any time. She is a good sport. She shows her irritation at bonus time when she knows that I am going to drop 5-10k. However, last year I bought her a 1200 purse in a preemptive strike and she had no issues.

Her biggest frustration happened when I was building a 67 set card by card. There would be 3-6 bubble mailers coming daily and since I travel a lot for work, she would have to sign for a lot if the higher dollar ones - followed by me calling her that evening to ask her what came so I could update my list.

This year, I came home from a trip on my birthday and a bubble mailer had come that day. As she and the kids sang happy birthday she handed me the package and then asked me to open it so she could see what she bought me (59 Gibson).

I read this entire thread this morning while enjoying my morning espresso and shortly thereafter headed outside for several hours to do some much needed spring cleaning in the garden. While out there I had a lot of time to think on this particular subject and my mind kept coming back to a few points, so please bare with me here.

Having read each post carefully I was reminded yet again just how many card collectors (based on this thread and other similar ones over the years) lie to their wives about the amount of money spent on their collecting habit.

Here's the catch: Why lie at all? If (< key word there) you are smart and collect items that have shown value increases historically, then this can be stated very easily as an investment. Unlike items that women tend to buy (e.g. shoes, purses, etc.) that do not increase in value the moment they are first used. I would not use that as the baseline of your argument, but there is truth in this statement. If you are taking care of all other financial requirements, this is not an issue.

Now, if you are lying to cover up spending money you don't have to spend then you are burdening your family to have a collection (sorry, just speaking the truth). If you are lying because you should not be spending said money on cards instead of putting it toward real debt, paying down credit cards, paying down loans, or investing in your ROTH (or other). Just my opinion, but a collection should be like an investment, but if you have real debt that needs paid down, you pay that first, invest second.

Then you must ask yourself "am I the only one lying in this family?". Who's to say that your wife is not also lying about spending? or other? If both of you are hiding money output from one another, how is it that you can sustain the most rudimentary baseline of trust? Even if both work it is fair to take a little for yourself, but then you should be marching toward a common goal as a team on a mission if you will and that incorporates integrity, trust, honor, etc. that are supposed to be within any successful marriage.

BREAK

My wife understands that I buy items and I show them to her from time-to-time when she asks about them. If I get something particularly unusual (very vintage) I make sure to show it because we both love antique items so very much.

Working together toward financial freedom is the key. It takes years of work, but once you are debt free you are debt free for life and with that comes trust in one another that you can endure and still find the $$$ to collect along the way.

Sorry for the lecture, just think that honesty is vital and if you are not being truthful, then do not expect that she is either.

Dan

Years ago my wife used to surprise me with statues and replicas from the Danbury Mint. Now that I dont collect stuff like that anymore (I am basically cards only now), she tells me how much money she wants to spend for an occasion like a birthday and I will show her what card I want on Ebay and she gets it for me.

Sometimes we will make a deal on an expensive card and say this is for 2 or 3 occasions, or even a couple of years as we did in the case of her buying me a 1952 Topps Mantle PSA-1.

She has zero intrest of course in my stuff, but I love that she is totally willing to give me cards like this for every occasion.

Note: To Il Padrino above, I have to lie to my wife about what the cards cost that I buy on a regular basis. She would go nuts if she had any idea how much I spend. She knows at my age the cards are NOT an investment, and that I buy a lot of lessor condition cards that will go up in value less than nicer cards, and she has idea's about our budget that are different than mine!! Meanwhile, we are doing just fine this way, both financially and in our relationship!!

I love my wife. My life loves me. She loves live games. She tolerates my obsession with collecting. :-)

So I have it pretty good.

Hey Val! Hopefully you won't be sleeping on the couch tonight. I was going to go to FL for some Nats pre-season games, but my brother and his wife had their first child, so I couldn't make it this year. Hope you're doing well and perhaps I'll run into you next month in Chantilly.

Jason

Although my fiance does not exactly understand my collecting, she does support it. The only time she has gotten made at me about it was the night I gave her her engagement ring.

Not sure if I shared the story before, but that day was pretty funny. I wanted her to be surprised when she got the ring, so I had been telling her for a while that I could not afford the ring yet, was saving for something nice, and that she would get it at the right time. She'd make snide comments here and there about how I could afford to buy baseball cards but not the ring, so I told her I would hold off on cards till I had the ring. Anyway, after weeks of going back and forth with the jeweler, I wrote the check and had him start working on it. Almost simultaneously, cards I wanted started popping up on eBay. Since I had already bought the ring, I figured I could purchase them without breaking my promise.

Fast forward to the day I had the ring in hand. I told her to keep the night open and made it clear I wanted to hang out. I found the perfect location and arranged a surprise party with her friends. I then invited her out to dinner. To keep everything on track--proposing while it was till light out and leaving time for the party--I had to get her to a quick, local restaurant. We sat down at a table at the same sushi place we go to for cheap lunch specials every other week. I could tell she was disappointed we weren't doing a nice dinner out. Then, she starts breaking down and going on and on about how she isn't a priority, how I promised I would not buy baseball cards until she had her ring, how I continued to buy them, and how I did not have her ring yet. I had it in my pocket at the time and could not help cracking up. Then I got a speech about how I did not take her feelings serious, etc., etc.

Well, she got the ring an hour or so later. Everything went exactly as planned. She said yes. And, I cannot imagine she will ever comment about the cards again :)