Spousal Support

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by gorrister

Does your spouse (I'm sure I could say wife for 99% of the board) support, put up with, dislikes, detests or doesn't even realize your collection exists? My wife doesn't realize that I'm even collecting cards. I sold the vast majority of my collection some years ago. It was a HUGE collection taking up a tremendous amount of space (and money). I had almost every regular issue Topps card from 1963-1980. But now, my collection is very small. It consists of just under 500 cards in 2 binders. Fits nicely into the a desk drawer. Out of her sight, out of her mind...

Now we know the real reason you crack slabs. You sneaky devil.

My wife is tolerant, if not appreciative.

[Ladder7]

She say's, "Just sell all that junk and take me to Hawaii". I take her to the Kowloon Polynesian Restaurant, they have a volcano!, order a couple of scorpion bowls and that holds her for a while. Incidentally, I'm too frightened to tell her to sell her jewelry.

[esd10]

my wife understands my collecting that one day she will talk me into selling my e90's,t206 amd my beloved turkey red cards which i have very few of and take her on a vaction but dont tell her but it wont happen lol

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by Ladder7

She say's, "Just sell all that junk and take me to Hawaii". I take her to the Kowloon Polynesian Restaurant, they have a volcano!, order a couple of scorpion bowls and that holds her for a while. Incidentally, I'm too frightened to tell her to sell her jewelry.

Steve,

I've been to Kowloon MANY a time and had WAAAAAY too many Scorpion Bowls there as well, my friend!!

[jp1216]

Only once has the 'maybe you could sell something to pay for this' comment come up. My wife knows what this stuff means to me. She is often jealous about the value, however. The fact that I can put stuff on eBay or B/S/T and have cash within minutes drives her crazy. She respects the value and the enjoyment that it brings me.

[tcdyess]

My wife is all too familiar with my sickness yet 15 years in she is still here.... I'm a lucky man....

[bh3443]

Originally Posted by Ladder7

She say's, "Just sell all that junk and take me to Hawaii". I take her to the Kowloon Polynesian Restaurant, they have a volcano!, order a couple of scorpion bowls and that holds her for a while. Incidentally, I'm too frightened to tell her to sell her jewelry.

Hi Steve!
We love the Kowloon, too! Everytime we go there we see fellow card collectors. I remember the days when Phil Castinetti would take his autograph signers there.
When I'm feelin OK, we go to visit our daughter and her family and try to stop in at Sportsworld on the way up and the Kowloon on the way back.

As for my collection and my wife, they get along fine! The one thing my wife can't understand is why I prefer to watch game 4 of the 1968 World Series instead of the current Red Sox game that's on now!

[bunst]

Generally she tolerates my collecting because it makes me happy, but has made subtle comments that are not exactly supportive. The last time she felt the need to question my spending, I said something to the effect that at least my cards will hold or gain value, unlike your closet full of clothes hardly even worn and basically worthless. She hasn't said much about me collecting since.

Interesting thread. My ex-wife did not like my baseball card habit. I can still hear her nagging, "Why do you spend money on this s@#* (stuff)". Currently single, and happier with the cards than the ex.

Now, I don't care. My collection is in my daughters name. She loves them. Only seven years old and she can name the Black Sox by position, and make a good argument for Omar Vizquels' inclusion in the HOF. Huge Mariners fan.

[dog*dirt]

My wife is very supportive of my obsession with cards. She has told me many times that there are a lot worse things that I could be doing with both my time any money. I am very grateful to have her support.

[Exhibitman]

Her attitude right now is basically as long as it doesn't imperil the family finances, have fun. She also knows that I am a sufficiently astute card buyer that I won't buy anything that is going to turn to s**t [unless everything else does]--when my business had a hiccup in 2009 I was able to sell cards to bridge the gap. And as I am often fond of reminding her when things get a bit testy about my cost of collecting, I don't play golf, I drive an old paid-for car, and I don't have season seats to sports teams [though in truth I gave up my Dodgers seats because I was P.O.'d about the steriods scandal more than anything else], so all the money that would be consumed on those things is instead sunk into something I can both enjoy and get money back from. It also helps that between forcing me back into the stock market in December 2007 and refusing to sell the house that prior summer, she cost us about $700,000. That buys me a lot a of slack with my card collecting.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by bunst

Generally she tolerates my collecting because it makes me happy, but has made subtle comments that are not exactly supportive. The last time she felt the need to question my spending, I said something to the effect that at least my cards will hold or gain value, unlike your closet full of clothes hardly even worn and basically worthless. She hasn't said much about me collecting since.

Atta boy Brian!

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by bunst

Generally she tolerates my collecting because it makes me happy, but has made subtle comments that are not exactly supportive. The last time she felt the need to question my spending, I said something to the effect that at least my cards will hold or gain value, unlike your closet full of clothes hardly even worn and basically worthless. She hasn't said much about me collecting since.

Gutsy, Brian, very gutsy, albeit quite true. My wife frequently tells me she wishes I'd never met a fellow attorney who I worked with over 20 years ago, who used to bring his cards into the office and stimulated my collecting gene. I tell her it wouldn't have mattered, since I've been into baseball since I was a kid, playing in summer leagues, high school, and the fast-pitch, over 30 hardball league when I was in my early to mid-40's. I also used to play Stratomatic baseball with buddies for endless hour after hour, and even designed some table-top games based on probability with dice with a different format on my own. One way or another, I was going to "capture" the game. If I hadn't met that attorney at that time, something else was destined to draw me into the hobby.

Sometimes she's a little more tolerant, however, usually with the earlier stuff, since she likes antique furniture herself. One example would be the 1910 PC796 Walter Johnson I acquired in the 2011 REA auction. I no longer make the mistake of telling her what more recent items are worth, however, since I know the response: "Sell it!"

Good thread,

Larry

[margoaepi]

My wife is understanding and dangerously encouraging. Went to my first live auction (Heritage) while visiting her in Dallas when she was down there for work for 3 months. The auction was a block from her house, so we went. Not only did I walk out of there with the item I wanted, but she coaxed me into bidding on and buying a lot that was 4x the cost of the first lot. I'm very lucky.

[tbob]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Now we know the real reason you crack slabs. You sneaky devil.

My wife is tolerant, if not appreciative.

+1

[dstraate]

Lord my wife hates it. She always gets the mail, and if she sees me running to the mailbox, trying to beat her, my goose is cooked. She knows already.

[Tim Fritz]

My wife is awesome when it comes to my collection. She teases me about it, but for Christmas this year I got a '33 Gehrig in PSA 2 from her. Need I say more.

I show her cards from time to time and she at the very least displays some level of interest. It has helped that over the years I've turned purchases of $100-$300 into thousands of dollars.

[mcap100176]

This was my wife's wedding gift to me (married November 2011). She won it in Baggers and said it was such a great rush to bid on things she could see why I liked it. She went above and beyond as she went in my phone, called a fellow collector & Board member and asked what I would be interested in; I knew nothing about it.

[rainier2004]

Nice thread!

My wife is as supportive as they come, period. She can tell you the difference between a 1914 and 1915 CJ no problem, lets me go on all the time, refuses to let me sell cards that when funding another purchase and has agreed a couple times to me spending big bucks. She could never make a purchase herself being gun shy but has enabled me to get several cards as gifts throughout the years. If I come home with a snickers bar for her she does cartwheels...I am a lucky guy.

[zljones]

Some of you guys are luckier than hell, my finacee is as unsupportive as can be, even though I do not spend her money only my money. I pay the majority of the bills and on time, and make nearly double what she does, yet I still get a hard time. Luckily I have our mail key, so I sneak in all my packages.

[Wymers Auction]

Originally Posted by dstraate

Lord my wife hates it. She always gets the mail, and if she sees me running to the mailbox, trying to beat her, my goose is cooked. She knows already.

That is hilarious!!!

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by dstraate

Lord my wife hates it. She always gets the mail, and if she sees me running to the mailbox, trying to beat her, my goose is cooked. She knows already.

David, the solution to that problem is really simple: Have the cards you buy shipped to the office or workplace, and the checks from cards you sell mailed to the home!

Larry

[aquarius31]

Amusing thread. My wife knows that I'm a collector and while she often calls me a dork I think she can appreciate many of the items that I've collected over the past several years. She loves art so I try to push the artistic angle of my collection....I think it works most of the time. She has no idea how much I've spent on my collection but she has never asked.

She does however have a tendency to embarrass the hell out of me if we go into an antique shop. I usually play off my desire to find some cool baseball item when I go right into the store but she's quick to mimic my voice and act like she's going to ask one of the workers if they have any baseball items.