Wifes Knowledge of GU hobby

[joelsabi]

Just curious to know how involved or interested is your wife in your collection. does you wife know how much money is spent and how much time you spend on your collection. how does she show her support in your hobby?

as for me, as long as i keep my priorities like paying for the kids private school, family vacations, and household needs, i think i will continue to have the support of my wife. right now i am working on my display area so i hope she will like the display as much as me. my wife has been nice enough to bring a couple of stuff to a framing store and that's as involved as she has gotten.

look forward to your thoughts.

[sox83cubs84]

My wife would travel with me and work with me at card shows in the late 1980s/early 90s. That was back when my health was better and card shows didn't lose us money. Now, she avoids shows and is the first to urge me to sell something out of my collection if a bill needs to be paid:mad: .
Oh, well...at least we had SOME time together enjoying the hobby...

Dave M.
Chicago area

[Vintagedeputy]

Typical wife responses -

"When you collected cards, it was all so much cheaper"

"How many bats can you have of the same guy?"

"Why do you want a Mets jersey? You dont even like the Mets"

"Of course you say its an investment, but would you ever sell it?"

[gingi79]

My fiance knew what she was getting into before we started dating. I was know as "The jersey guy" at my college. One of the things that I really appreciated early on in our relationship was the fact she was interested in the things I was and tried to understand my interest.

After a year or so of dating, she started to show interest in obtaining her own stuff. She has several replica jerseys and I bought her a game worn Ducks jersey because she loves the color purple.

However, because she likes hockey and I would always watch my beloved Canucks, her favorite player became Roberto Luongo. I realized we were in this hobby together after she spent her own money (and it was A LOT) to buy herself a Luongo jersey at last summer's MeiGray expo.

The pinnacle of her commitment to both me and our hobby was when the opportunity to purchase my White Whale last month arose. When I showed her the auction for a SCF year Pavel Bure Canucks jersey (and the first I have ever seen with MeiGray Paperwork) she was the one who figured out how we could afford it. She pulled out her credit card and financed it.

I realize how lucky I am to have a partner who enjoys the things I do. She appreciates my hobby and is an active participant. Plus she loves going to live sporting events as well. In college, we didn't miss a single Potsdam State hockey game in 4 years. We have seen the Senators and the 67's in Ottawa, the Islanders on Long Island, the Mets in NY, the Blue Jays in Toronto and it was her idea to go to the Expo there as well.

She also asked me to question the board if anyone has NY Giants tickets for the upcoming season as that is her next sports priority :p

[skyking26]

Wife faithfully attended shows with me while we dated in the early 90's. Once we started having children she slowly dropped away from the shared love. She knows here in 2009 that I spend freely and alot; but to what extent of knowledge is not known as I keep it hidden for fear of my life...

[xpress34]

When my wife and I met in 2002, I was still working for Nike. I explained to her that I am a HUGE baseball fan and collector - and when things got more serious between us, I divulged how my 1st wife had screwed me over on my collection... not because she cared about baseball, but because it hurt me personally.

Anyway, the wife has always supported my hobby as long as it wasn't keeping us from paying a bill or doing something as a family... in fact, she has become quite knowledgeable about current MLB players and the such.

She always looks for baseball related items for me for Christmas, Birthday, Father's Day, Anniversary, etc...

When we met, she was a hockey fan - that has since cooled after the Strike Year - when I found that out, I found out that Mike Modano of the Stars was her favorite player (although she followed the AV's as well - we live in the Denver area) I was able to obtain tickets to the 1st PreSeason Game between the Stars and Av's from the Nike-Bauer Rep when he brought Joe Sakic in to Niketown Denver.

When I went to pick her up, she said she had to grab her jersey and I cringed that it was going to be some Wal-Mart iron on special... boy was I surprised when she walked out in an 'On-Ice' Authentic Peter Forsberg home white (before they switched to White being away) w/ fight strap, etc. At that point, I knew she was a keeper!!!

I bought her an 'On-Ice' Authentic Modano jersey and took her to the team hotel to meet him and get her jersey autographed... she was speechless.

When we got married, I realized that the ONLY ball game going on in Southern California while we would be there was the Marlins @ Padres on the Sunday we were to fly out. She was a trooper and got up at 4am so we could go to DIA and get on standby for an earlier flight... our airline moved us up AND put us in 1st Class since it was our Honeymoon. We landed in San Diego, got our car, went to Petco, got tickets and watched the Marlins beat the Padres. Then back to the Hotel and on with whatever she wanted to do for the Honeymoon.

We went back to SD for our 1st Anniversary and she let me plan the trip around the Roc being there to play LA and SD and Clint Hurdle hooked me up with tix for the LA Game - we sat with Aaron Miles mom and dad...

She has also supported my annual Spring Training jaunts to AZ. It doesn't hurt that my family has all migrated to Tucson and Phoenix over the past 10 years or so...

She has plenty of pieces in the collection as well and has had me sell her stuff before to buy something else for her...

The crowning moment came in early 2008 when she called me at work to tell me (not ask me, but tell me) that I would be in downtown Denver the following Tuesday morning. I asked what we were doing and she not 'we', but 'you'. I asked what I was doing and she told me it was the Natioanl Western Stockshow Parade (I grew up in Texas) and I told her that I hadn't been into the 'western' thin and rodeos and all in years. Then she told me I must not have seen the paper and who the Grand Marshall was - Nolan Ryan. Needless to say, I was there - in fact the pic in my sig is from that with Nolan in his cowboy hat.

The next month Nolan was here in Greeley, CO (about 35 mi N of Denver) for the Weld County Friends of Baseball Breakfast. She decided she would get up early that Saturday and go with me to see what the big deal was with me about Nolan Ryan. We got to talk to Nolan for a bout 5 minutes before the event and then he talked for about an hour and a half. When he was done, the wife had been won over - she said she finally realized why I admired him so much and told me she had a great time coming to see him speak.

Since then, she attended her 1st Opening Day last year and SHE bought the Tickets for this year's Opening Day and said she will not miss another Opening Day!

We did have ONE small hickup last year - about this time actually - as I was on 'furlough' from work due to slow time in the Cable Industry... well, I went to an Estate Sale and dropped about $115 on some cards and such and she about went through the roof that I spent that kind of money will receiving unemployment. I explained that it was a quick flip opportunity and when I had made $1,600 by that evening on eBay on just 4 cards, she said she wouldn't question my judgement again.

Now, it's pretty much smooth sailing - I am very honest about what I spend - although she does still roll her eyes sometimes about some purchases... and, she has never had to ask me to sell anything. If we have ever been tight, or if I was looking to buy something else, I have always sold or flipped something of my own accord. She does freak a little when I tell her what our basement is roughly worth!!! :)

All the best -

Chris

[xpress34]

Typical wife responses -

"When you collected cards, it was all so much cheaper"

"How many bats can you have of the same guy?"

"Why do you want a Mets jersey? You dont even like the Mets"

"Of course you say its an investment, but would you ever sell it?"

Vintage -

I read your post to my wife and she was laughing because she has made some of those comments in the past.... although slightly modified:

"How many Auto Baseballs can you have of the same guy?" - in reference to my 10 different Nolan Ryan Balls and 10 different Matt Holliday balls - also because my freind wanted a Ryan Auto ball and I had to get another one for him because each of mine have different stories behind them!

"Why do you want a Yankees hat? You HATE the Yankees!" - in reference to my purchase of a Vintage KM Pro Yankees hat for the collection.

"If it's worth so much now, why don't you just sell it now instead of waiting?" - in reference to me trying to explain to her that very rarely does GU and AU memorabilia lose value over time, but rather gains in most aspects...

- Chris

[PK]

Not ashamed to say it, but my wife is the main bread winner while I have been staying home with the kids for the past 5+ years and going back to get my Masters in teaching for the past 1.5 years.

She has been very understanding and supportive of my habit. We all try to sneak boxes in from USPS/Fed Ex & UPS and hope she does not see the box cause she knows damn well what's inside and we would rather not ingage in any un-needed conflict...LOL

It helps to have a focused collection to keep the spending in line a little, but there is always more out there to buy. She shows some interest when I talk about it, but have yet to get anything game worn form her or even I Meigray gift cert. Maybe soon : )

Gingi, talk to Barry about Giants tix, he has seasons at the Meadowlands

Matt

[coxfan]

My wife of 39 years is cool with my hobby because: 1) I've shown that I won't go crazy and exceed our fairly modest budgetary ( and space) limits, and I ask her before purchase whenever there's a question; 2) I'm least as generous with her hobby expenses as she is with mine; 3) We continue to maintain joint checking accounts with check registers easily accessible to both of us.

Fortunately she adopted baseball in our "empty-nest" period ( starting ca 2000) just to be with me, and she unexpectedly become a real fan! She's better at getting spring-training autographs than I. And besides, Tommy Lasorda has a strict women-and-children-only policy on the uncommon occasions when he signs for anyone.

[bigtruck260]

When I met my wife, I was 18 - delivering pizza and dare I say...indulging in Mother Nature fairly regularly. I had some junk that carried over when we got married - she collected nothing.

She's seen things come and go - My Judas Priest and Iron Maiden vinyl collections, Baseball Cards, Autographs...and many other hoarded treasures.

After 10 years of marraige, she found out she was pregnant, and I sold almost everything so that we could start buying funriture - and vehicles appropriate for transporting children. However, I had some bats that I received at games over the years...nothing major, but it got me thinking of how cool it would be to have SOMETHING collectible for my kids to get into when old enough to take interest.

As long as it stays in that realm, the wife is OK...but I still get questions from the old days - "It's just cardboard" - Now of course, "It's just wood".
Most of my stuff is under $1000 - In fact, most is under $500...but she still gets quizzical when I tell her about these 'amazing trades' I made for this or that..;)

I guess I am like Robert - she knows some, but I keep the rest from her in her best interest. I don't want our kids to have no father and a jailbird mother:D