1973 Topps Mike Schmidt

One of the things that many of you bloggers got me to think about was starting some big project.  I decided that I would try to put together my birth year set, 1973 Topps.  This was a good choice for a number of reasons.  To many collectors/dealers, 1972 is the last of the "vintage" sets so the 1973 set is very reasonable in price.  While there are a number of stars in the set, they are either at the end of their career or on special all-time leaders cards, so they are reasonable in price.  At the $350-$700 range for a complete set, this is the oldest Topps set that is still under $1500, so again the price is to my advantage.

I have been able to put together almost the whole set without spending more than $8 on any one card.  I have bought commons and some stars in pretty cheap lots.  I have found some stars cards at what I consider bargain prices.  I have picked up some of the harder to find high number series through COMC for reasonable prices.

My only concern was the big card of the set, a Rookie Third Basemen card of Ron Cey, John Hilton, and MIKE SCHMIDT.  With this card holding up the value of the set, I knew that this would be where I would have to spend the bulk of my money if I were to complete the set.  I have probably looked at a hundred Schmidt rookies since deciding to put this set together.  All of which were either way overpriced, or in poor condition (and still overpriced).

I almost pulled the trigger at a card show last fall, but the dealer would not budge off of his $75 price for a decent but not great card.  I was willing to go $60, but he wouldn't come down.  I almost decided to settle for a miscut and off-center card as I haven't been too worried about the condition of some of the cards.  However, I decided that I really wanted to have a decent Schmidt Rookie to cap off this set.  I decided that if I could find a card that was in decent shape with no creases or major corner damage for less than $50 then I would do it.

I can now say that I have found it and am now the proud owner of a 1973 Mike Schmidt Rookie PSA 4 graded card.  I found it at my local card shop who had it originally listed on ebay.  He came down on the price that it was listed for and brought it into my price range.  This brings me down to 8 cards needed to complete my set.  I hope to have this completed by Thanksgiving.