Spousal Support

[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