OT. Wives

[t206blogcom]

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?

[jg8422]

Originally Posted by t206blogcom

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?

Sounds like a keeper!

[hshrimps]

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.

[hshrimps]

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.

[DHogan]

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.

[Jantz]

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



Jantz

[freakhappy]

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

[teetwoohsix]

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"!! 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

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by t206blogcom

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?

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

[kailes2872]

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).

[Il Padrino]

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

[dabigyankeeman]

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!!

[Jcfowler6]

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

So I have it pretty good.

[t206blogcom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

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

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

[Bestdj777]

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

[paleocards]

(I posted this on the PSA boards in December 2006...)

My wife says she doesn't understand my collecting obsession, but she knows exactly what I want the most. Here's the story: my local card shop owner is selling an incredible collection (on eBay) compiled by one of his customers. It's mostly modern stuff, but very impressive modern stuff, like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella cut auto cards. Anyway, he also had some graded vintage, including a Ryan RC in PSA 8 and '69 and '70 Ryans in PSA 9. Well, all of these cards were out of my league but there was one beautifully-centered vintage card in PSA 7 that I knew I had to have.

Although it was on the far-reaches of affordability for me, and I didn't have the cash at the time, I asked the card-shop owner to hold off selling it because I thought I could get the cash together by the end of January. He said he would. I told my wife about the card and she politely feigned mild interest. I said I intended to sell some of my raw HOFer cards that are dupes of cards that I now have in PSA 7 and 8 holders and the rest of my childhood coin collection to raise the necessary funds. The following weekend, I went to the cardshop to shoot the breeze (and to make sure that the card I was lusting over was still there). While I was in the shop, my wife called me on my cell and asked me if the shop was in the same outdoor mall as Home Depot. I told her it wasn't, the shop was in the next mall up the boulevard. I took her question as a not-so-subtle hint to go to Home Depot after I leave the shop to get some paint and lightbulbs we needed (not realizing until much later that her query was a very subtle and effective way to find out the exact location of the shop). So I stopped at Home Depot on the way to the coin shop, where the owner told me that he wasn't interested in my coins. Bummed, I returned home and told my wife that I couldn't sell my coins and I was a little worried about getting the money together that I needed by the end of January.

The first night of Channukah arrived last Friday and I was very excited because my wife ordered iPod nanos for our two teen-agers. As they were opening their gifts, she hands me a box. Now I'm very confused because we generally don't exchange gifts on Channukah (we keep the gift-giving for the kids). So as I'm opening the box, I really didn't have a clue, until I felt the thin plastic slab through the tissue paper...

































Is she awesome, or what?