Words of love? Start with Letterhead.

Byline: BEST OF ... by The Register-Guard

There is something worse than being alone on Valentine's Day.

Gift inequality.

You know, when you get your honey a picture frame, and your honey gets you a cherry-red Mini Cooper convertible with leather interior and a jack for your iPod. Ouch.

To avoid such awkward moments, Team Best of ... sat down with our spouses a few years ago and hammered out a plan.

Each year, we write a nice note in a card and go out to dinner. We do this several days before Feb. 14. When the actual date rolls around, we're so totally over Valentine's Day that all those roses and chocolates and diamonds everyone else is exchanging just look silly.

Not only does this technique take the sting out of V-Day, it also saves us a lot of cash we'd rather spend on designer jeans for ourselves.

The average American consumer will spend $100.89 on Valentine's Day this year, according to the National Retail Federation. Compare that to the cost of a high-quality card, about $2.50 on average, and you get the idea.

A full 62 percent of consumers will buy at least one greeting card, on this, the third most popular card-sending holiday behind Christmas and Father's Day. But where to get the perfect card?

Of course, there's always Hallmark, a reliable choice since 1910, when, according to the company Web site, 18-year-old Joyce Clyde Hall stepped off a train in Kansas City, Mo., with nothing but two shoeboxes of postcards under his arm. Within a few decades, Hall and his brother had built their greeting card empire. Americans now send 6 billion greeting cards a year.

A number of our friends raved about the selection at Hirons Drug Stores. It's a great choice for you two-birds, one-stone types, for whom picking up a gallon of milk, a tube of ointment, a scented candle, a wind chime and a valentine all at the same time is high-efficiency nirvana.

But we here at Best of ... like to think of ourselves as more thoughtful, more selective than the average consumer. We like high-quality, unique goods, preferably made by local artists or merchants. We seek pleasure and meaning from our buying experiences. We want to know that what we buy is special.

That's why we buy all our cards at Letterhead Fine Papers & Goods, the best card shop in town.

Letterhead sells gorgeous stationery from exotic places such as France and Portland. It carries an impressive array of letterpress stationery, including individual cards and packages of thank-yous and invitations. There's something about the heavy paper, the embossed lettering and the colored ink used in letterpress printing that just does it for us.

But be warned: Go there for a single card and you'll come out with more than you expect. So go to Letterhead to get that valentine, but bring a little extra cash to get something special for yourself, too.

Bummed we didn't pick your favorite place? Get over it, buddy. You can't win 'em all. Instead of writing that disgruntled e-mail, why not check out the Best of ... archive at www.registerguard .com/bestof.

BEST CARD SHOP

Letterhead Fine Papers and Gifts

Where: 25 E. Eighth Ave.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

Call: 343-6374

CAPTION(S):

Ken Herrin helps Betsy Wolfston find just the right item for Valentine's Day at Letterhead Fine Papers and Gifts.