Card perspective from the better half

 

 

Today is Mrs. Night Owl's birthday.

It's not easy to mix cards with her birthday. She just doesn't care about them. She's been great about my hobby all these years, never saying a word of complaint about it, the accumulating, the spending, the scattered cards that she might trip over, none of it. 

 

She even was the first to suggest the card room, although I'm sure part of that was to make sure the cards were finally confined to one place. That's mostly succeeded.

She does find some of my collecting interesting, and one of the few times I can grab her attention on cards is when I say, "guess what stupid price this card is going for?" That was a fun pandemic game. It doesn't happen quite as much anymore. 

Other times I can get her card attention is when I find something that I know is related to her interests. Then there are times when I'm sorting cards and she'll walk past and comment on how she likes how a certain card looks, the design catches her eye.

Right now I will attempt to list what she would like most if she was collecting cards, based on everything I just said.

1. Old cards.

She likes old stuff and she's mentioned how she likes the way 1950s cards look. But I think she likes the way cards that are even older look. The '50s are fine, but they aren't ...

2. Really, really old cards.

Yeah, I think if my wife was collecting, she'd be collecting tobacco cards. She likes that turn-of-the-century stuff and older. The Victorian Era, that's where she's at.

That's different than me as I just can't get myself interested that much in cards that are older than the 1950s. Sure, I'd like them, especially my Dodgers, but I find the more current cards more relatable. "Old" has always been the '50s to me and I don't know if I'll ever break from that.

3. Cards that mimic old cards.

Not Heritage. That's not going to do it for her, but Gypsy Queen will. I may dislike almost all of the GQ looks, but she wouldn't.

 

But she would especially like the tobacco-mini retro cards. The mini aspect is key for her, she's mentioned that before.

 

4. Allen and Ginter cards.

Here's where our interests line up. She finds A&G the most appealing as I do, and minis the best of the A&G. Me, too!

 

In general, A&G includes the best of all worlds for her (there's Queen Victoria now). It mimics old-style cards, it includes minis and it includes topic that are not baseball. Many a time I've brought a card over to her with a "guess who is in A&G now?" look, and most of the time she's thought it was cool.

She likes the A&G mini insert themes, too. She likes quirky. I like quirky. Not once would either of us complain that there was a card of a planet in A&G. That's why we're still together.

5. Cards from TV shows she watched as a kid.

We're both children of the '70s. Cards like this automatically have appeal. I own only one card from Grease, but I if I found a bunch more, she might want me to try to complete it.

6. More childhood memory cards.

My wife is a Buffalo girl. She grew up with the Bills and Sabres on TV in the house. She got to know the names of the Sabres from the mid-1970s because her older sister was watching them. These cards always get a reaction.

 

7. Josh Allen cards.

Nothing is more appealing from a card perspective for her than Josh Allen cards. The last two years she's become a diehard Bills fan and "Joshy" fan. In fact I'm not sure why she hasn't raided my collection for the Allen cards yet.

 

 

This whole page would be appealing to her.

Even after having said all that, just because she's mentioned she likes a certain card doesn't mean she'll take the next leap into collecting. The gene has to be there. But I never expected her to get that into the Bills after all these years, so I suppose it's still possible.

 

I doubt seriously that will happen.

Mrs. Owl and I have been living in the same place together for over 30 years, longer than I lived with my parents (it's always weird when you realize that) and I've celebrated 35 of her birthdays. I think I know her.