Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Breaking the Bank On Something Other Than Cards

Ladies and gents, its official, today my fiancee and I booked the place for our wedding in November. I know this has nothing to do with this blog, but this epic event in my life has brought about a number of observations about the hobby and its relation to my future wife. Cmon people, I know you have this problem too.

As it stands right now, my girlfriend (I hate the word fiancee) HATES when I spend money on cards. When I say "hates," I mean she will tear off my pinky if she hears that I did tap the bank account for anything. According to our agreement, the only time I can spend money is when I have sold something on eBay to counteract it, or if I "disguise" it as another "necessary expense."

Basically when it comes down to it, women don’t like any hobby where you have to spend money on something other than them (Mario, be quiet). That’s not to say my girlfriend doesn’t love sports, though. I lucked out there. For example, when she was thinking of a way for our families to meet a few years ago, she chose a Twins game to do it. Everyone had fun and it wasnt as bad as I imagined in my head. In fact, for my birthday during the first year we were dating, she bought me 1st baseline tickets to the Twins and Red Sox game. It was completely unexpected and completely awesome. Of course, she picks her favorite players by how "hot" they are, so naturally, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer are her favorites. This is pretty good in the long run, because both of those guys are favorites of mine as well. Plus, I can watch the games on TV without objection because she is usually watching too.

A good biproduct of this is that in the past, she has actually allowed purchases of some cards because I said they could be "hers." This meant that she could tell people that she owns them if they ever question me about them. In all reality, they just sit on the display next to mine, and until now, no one has asked whose they are. Yeah, relationships can be a tough nut to crack. Personally, I think its too much of a double standard, because when we spent money to get her new designer purse, she didn’t say boo. Figures.

I even tried to explain my cards as an investment for us in the future. I knew this wasn’t the case because A) the cards I have would never be sold, B) they would never gain THAT much value, and C) Investing in cards is stupid. She literally steamrolled my plan for relationship hobby domination in 30 seconds. She knew exactly what was up, especially when she knew what would be coming up on our bank statement on a bi-weekly basis.

For those of you making the whip noise in your head, that’s fine. I understand that I may not have the "hand" in the relationship when it comes to spending money on stupid "investments." Yet, despite my lack of funds to spend on cards, I DO have plenty to put down a deposit on a beautiful mansion for our wedding, something MUCH more important than any auto could ever be. So HA!

10 comments:

  1. Man sorry to hear but congrats on the marriage.

    Hey, you could always follow my step by step guide into tricking your girlfriend into collecting baseball cards. It worked for me.

    http://completist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/how-to-trick-your-girlfriend-into-collecting/

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  2. Yeah, tried that whole thing already. It doesnt work when you pull a Dave Rasner auto and Jersey card of Aaron Fultz.

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  3. You poor saps. I'm glad I have a girl that's a little more understanding while also being more fiscally responsible.

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  4. Fiscally responsible is a relative term here.

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  5. Maybe for you guys. Personally I can do without the $100 or more scam boxes.

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  6. My wife can't stand that I buy cards either, but here is how I handle it, we each get $20 a week to do with any way we please. I usually don't take out a dime and use it as a paypal credit. I find that as long as I don't do it on our time (Fridays for us), she is ok with it. I don't buy packs or boxes anymore because like you said, it's not worth it. So if there is a set I like, I scour ebay and try to land it for under $20. As long as you are level headed about it, you should be able to get it. For instance I just found a Topps series 2 set for $18 shipped. Being that would only mean 8 packs (including tax) and I would only yield 90 cards (16 of which would be inserts) I think its a steal, plus I get the whole set. When you are married it's all about setting limits. Mario, I think you can back me up on this one. If you go over those limits, though be prepared to shell out for handbags or jewelry.

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  7. Good points on the limits, and for the most part I have no problem acting within them.

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  8. A lot of women are just as bad about handbags as we are about our cardboard. I don't know how much you know about the whole high-end bag thing or not, but a lot of the brands come with numbered certificates of authenticity and special bags to put the bags in and all sorts of that stuff. (The things I learn from the co-worker with the Coach and Louis Vuitton addiction....)

    I was going to say something smartassed like "at least your gf isn't into Nick Punto." (Wait, I just did.)

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  9. Thats weird that the handbags come with certificates and shit. I bought her a Coach bag and it didnt come with anything, though, hmm. It was from the Coach store, so I know its real, but eh, whatever.

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  10. You poor sap! Man up! Get a pair!
    My little lady looks FOR me. She buys FOR me.
    Great blog. I ma enjoying it.

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