Record Price Paid for Topps Schmidt rookie

mikeschmidt

I believe that this is the highest price ever paid for a 1973 Topps #615 Mike Schmidt rookie, graded PSA 9 MINT.

$1,937.75 including buyer's fee.

gemint

WTF?! I can't believe the print snow on that one. I'm definitely resubmitting mine (PSA 8). I'll post a scan tonight and see what you think. It has perfect centering and four razor sharp corners. PSA offered me a 9PD on it because it had two tiny white specs on the Schmidt photo. It's 10x better than this one. Sorry to rant, I guess I'm just a bit worked up over the Gaspipe thread.

Anyway, that's a strong price. It's good to see the market is still there for the high end blue chip cards.

aconte

MS,

Just proves the argument that not everyone buys off of ebay. I've think you made that argument
in the past and I agreed 100% with it.

And I also think it's a bad nine!

aconte

mikeschmidt

I honestly can't tell if it is print snow or dust on the printer -- it certainly is not 100% clear to me one way or the other. This does seem to have exceptional centering and strong corners for this card -- but that is all I will speak of -- the rest I would have to see in person to make an assessment.

I will say this -- this is a record price for the card. With a population of nearly 50 in PSA 9 -- this is the first example to hit the public in many, many months. This is one of the few Schmidt cards that I do not have multiples of -- but I know that most major collectors (including those who only collect "vintage" cards) seem to have this card in PSA 9.

For comparitive purposes -- here are two other Schmidt rookies:

A 1973 O-Pee-Chee PSA 9

And a 1973 Topps PSA 9

gemint

Could be dust but I don't think so. Those specs on the Cey cap definitely look like print snow. The flaws in the Schmidt photo could be due to dust or the scanner.

Kendall

Nice card, not as nice as MS's 9. Looks like Ill be sending my 8 in for another look.

1420sports

My PSA 8 is DEFINITELY worth re-submitting!

mikeschmidt

Though the centering is not as nice -- this Novella example on Ebay has great colors and corners. And is available for less than the Mile High example!

aconte

<< <i>Nice card, not as nice as MS's 9. Looks like Ill be sending my 8 in for another look. >>





<< <i>My PSA 8 is DEFINITELY worth re-submitting! >>



If you resubmit yours just because the Mile High example is a bad nine you will probably be
diappointed in your results. If the card is graded Psa 8, it is in that holder for a reason.

aconte

gemint

I'll post some scans over the weekend (if I can locate the darn card). Hopefully I can get the PD to show up in the scan. I do agree that we should not expect to get a 9's on our cards because of the weak 9's in these two examples. But I had been thinking about resubmitting mine for a long time. Another advantage is it only costs $5 right now to grade out a Schmidt. My only concern is the risk of wear from additional handling.

gemint

Well after some searching, I located my Schmidt RC. The close up probably isn't the best since it shows some PDs that aren't really there and misses the only one you can see with the naked eye. What do you think?

Kendall

After looking at my Schmidt RC PSA 8 I found that it has a nice front, 4 sharp corners and a very fuzzy OC back. Probably would not be worthy of a 9. I did have success with my PSA 8 1974 Topps Schmidt. I resubmitted it and it came back a 9. its a very nice looking card with the exception of the little yellow dots that are very common for this card.

Gemint, do you have a scan of the back of your card?

Schmidt Pictures

gemint

Thanks for the feedback Kendall. Here's the back of the card. Cornerwise, it should be worthy of a 9 and they even offered a 9PD when I took to a show and had it reviewed (in the 8 holder of course). I think the fact that it's in a lower grade holder affects their opinion.

mikeschmidt

Gemint-

That is a nice Schmidt rookie card. It seems as if it has a lot of border toning -- what do you think? Not that that is necessarily a problem -- I think that PSA generally deals with that very inconsistently in the 1973 Topps issue. It is a high-end example of a PSA 8, I would agree.

gemint

Thanks for your feedback Marc. There is a small amount of toning on the card. It came from a mint set I purchased where about 25% of the set had a small amount of toning. Many of those cards received 9's so I don't think PSA downgrades for it. I'll probably resubmit it before the $5 special expires.

mikeschmidt

Gemmint -- They don't seem to downgrade for toning -- I have three PSA 10 GEM MINT cards from the set that all exhibit the same sort of toning as your Schmidt rookie.