Brothers exchange same birthday card for 36 years

Darryl and Dan Culberson were cheapskates before it was cool. And they can prove it.

The two brothers have been exchanging the same birthday card since 1973.

Every January, Darryl drops it in the mail heading to Dan’s home outside Boulder. And a few months later, the card makes its way back to Colorado Springs for Darryl’s March 7 birthday.

The yellowed card is covered with pithy greetings that are now snaking down the back cover. Its fraying edges are held together by tape and the stubbornness of two brothers.

Darryl, 62, insists that his older brother, 68, is “the cheapest person I’ve ever met,” and he’s not far behind.

That’s what inspired him to buy the card the year they decided to stop exchanging birthday presents.

On the outside it reads, “Here it is! Just another card for your birthday!” Inside, a masked bandit on a motorcycle rides beneath the words “The Phantom Cheapo strikes again!”

Dan thought it would be funny to send the same card back, one-upping his brother’s cheapo move. And a tradition was born.

Thus, a card survives that was printed the year the Watergate scandal unfolded, Elvis played his famous live concert in Hawaii and the World Trade Center opened.

It’s never been lost in the mail, and the Phantom Cheapo – true to its name – was even delivered last year when it didn’t have enough postage.

Read more: Cheapskate brothers exchange same birthday card for 36 years