1973 Topps Mike Schmidt and Set Needs

This past Saturday I made my way to a card show in Phoenix. It was well attended. So well attended that I had to wait for someone to leave before I was allowed to enter. Everyone that I saw was wearing masks.

I made a quick loop to check out what was available and found a dealer that I have interacted with before. I could tell that he had his usual wares; boxes upon boxes of vintage baseball cards in top loaders all sorted by year. 

The problem was there were already a few customers digging through the boxes, so I stood back and waited my turn. It wasn't long before one of the customers completed a purchase and left and I was able to move up and start rummaging through a box filled with 1963 - 1973 Topps. I had started with the 1963 cards and was up to to 1965 when I happened to spot the dealer going a smaller box with another customer and spied what looked like a 1973 Topps Ron Cey, John Hilton and Mike Schmidt rookie card, so I asked about it. 

The dealer replied that he had 3 for sale. Two were in this box and another one was in his display case. The customer going through that box was interested in that card. I asked for the price of his most beat up one. The two in the box were $75 and $100 and the one in his display case was $225. The dealer handed me the two from the box and I got a good look. Both were severely off centered, but not otherwise, they were both in fairly good shape, all things considered.

Since the other customer had been looking at them already I told the dealer I was interested, but I would let the other guy pick first. He said he wasn't sure if he was going to get one or not, but took them and looked them over again. Without saying anything I was secretly wanting the $75 one, but I waited patiently for the other customer to decide if he was going to buy one and if so, which one he was going to buy.

It didn't take long before he responded that he would take the $100 copy. I quickly responded that I would take the $75 copy and the dealer handed it to me. I then gravitated to the 1973 Topps section of the box I had been digging through and grabbed a couple other cards from the set that I knew I needed. There were several copies of each card available at different prices depending on the condition. I focused on the Roberto Clemente and Nolan Ryan cards and made a few strategic choices before handing my selections to the dealer, asking if he would take $100 for the 3 cards. He did the math and accepted my price which was $15 less than the sticker price. 

Here is a better look at the Mike Schmidt rookie card. No offense to Ron Cey or John Hilton, but I will always think of this as a Mike Schmidt card.

Even with these additions I still need 201 cards to complete the 1973 Topps set and most of them are from the 4th and 5th series, so they aren't going to be all that easy to come by.

Here are the cards I still need: 1, 17, 100, 117, 137, 139, 159, 164, 168, 169, 172, 187, 188, 193, 211, 213, 216, 225, 230, 236, 255, 256, 280, 281, 282, 284, 309, 330, 332, 335, 338, 350, 352, 356, 380, 392, 397, 398, 399, 401, 403, 405, 406, 407, 410, 411, 413, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 421, 422, 424, 426, 427, 428, 429, 431, 432, 434, 435, 437, 438, 440, 441, 443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 449, 451, 452, 453, 454, 457, 458, 459, 460, 461, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 475, 480, 481, 482, 483, 486, 487, 488, 489, 491, 492, 493, 494, 496, 498, 499, 500, 501, 504, 505, 506, 509, 512, 513, 514, 515, 518, 519, 512, 523, 524, 525, 526, 528, 529, 532, 535, 536, 539, 541, 543, 545, 547, 548, 549, 551, 552, 553, 556, 557, 558, 560, 562, 563, 564, 565, 567, 569, 572, 573, 575, 576, 580, 582, 583, 584, 585, 589, 593, 595, 596, 598, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 607, 608, 609, 610, 611, 613, 614, 616, 624, 628, 629, 641, 643, 646, 648, 651, 653, 654, 656, 660