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.