Every collector has that one player.
The player whose cards don't go into the inventory box.
The cards you don't check every week to see if they've gone up in value.
The player who reminds you why you started collecting in the first place.
For me, that player is Mike Schmidt.
And my ultimate chase?
The highest-grade 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt rookie card I can get my hands on.
But to understand why, you have to go back to Philadelphia in the 1980s.
Growing Up in Philly
I grew up in Philadelphia, and in the 1980s, baseball was everything.
If you know Philadelphia sports fans, you already understand.
We're passionate.
We're demanding.
We're loyal.
And we definitely aren't quiet.
The Phillies weren't simply a baseball team you watched during the summer. They were part of growing up in Philly.
And standing at third base was our guy:
Michael Jack Schmidt.
As a kid, I didn't need statistics to tell me Mike Schmidt was great.
I watched him.
I listened to people talk about him.
I collected his cards.
Schmidt was the guy you wanted to see come to the plate when the Phillies needed something to happen.
Looking back now, the numbers confirm what we already believed.
Schmidt Was That Good
Mike Schmidt spent his entire 18-year Major League career with the Philadelphia Phillies.
He finished with 548 home runs, 1,595 RBI, 12 All-Star selections, 10 Gold Gloves and three National League MVP Awards.
In 1980, Schmidt hit 48 home runs, won the National League MVP and helped lead Philadelphia to its first World Series championship, earning World Series MVP honors along the way.
He eventually entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995.
For Phillies fans of my generation, though, Schmidt was more than a Hall of Fame third baseman.
He was our guy.
And Then There Were the Baseball Cards
This is where my story with Schmidt really connects to what we're building at Morro Bay Sports Cards.
I started collecting cards when I was young.
And I never really stopped.
Like most collectors, what I chase has changed over the years. There are modern cards, rookies, numbered parallels, refractors, autographs and plenty of new players that get me excited about the hobby.
But Mike Schmidt is different.
Mike Schmidt is my PC.
PC stands for personal collection, but I think it means something more than that.
Your PC tells your story as a collector.
Maybe it's the player you watched with your dad.
Maybe it's your hometown team.
Maybe it's the rookie you believed in before everyone else.
Or maybe it's the superstar you pretended to be when you stepped into the backyard batter's box as a kid.
For me, it's Schmidt.
The Ultimate Chase: 1973 Topps #615
There's one Schmidt card sitting at the top of my collecting mountain.
The 1973 Topps Rookie Third Basemen #615 featuring Mike Schmidt, Ron Cey and John Hilton.
It isn't flashy.
There's no Refractor.
No serial number.
No autograph.
No 1/1 stamped on the back.
Just a classic 1973 Topps baseball card featuring a young Mike Schmidt before anyone knew exactly what his career would become.
And that's what makes it special.
Today, high-grade examples are legitimately difficult cards. More than five decades of handling, storage, centering issues, corners and surface wear separate an average copy from the elite examples.
That's why my goal isn't simply to own a Mike Schmidt rookie.
I want to keep climbing the grading ladder.
Find a better one.
Upgrade.
Then upgrade again.
And someday, own the highest-grade example I can realistically acquire.
That's the chase.
Why Not Just Buy It?
Because collectors know that's not how this works.
If it were only about owning the card, the hobby wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
It's searching card shows.
Watching auctions.
Finding something buried in a dealer's case.
Checking the centering.
Looking at the corners.
Comparing grades.
Watching prices.
Walking away when the price isn't right.
And sometimes finding the card you've been chasing when you least expect it.
The hunt becomes part of the story.
That's What a PC Should Be
The hobby talks a lot about value.
What's hot?
What's going up?
What should you buy?
What should you sell?
I enjoy that side of collecting too. It's part of today's hobby.
But your PC doesn't necessarily need to make financial sense.
It needs to make sense to you.
A card can be worth $5 and still be one of the most important cards in your collection.
That's something I hope new collectors understand.
Don't build your entire collection around what everyone else tells you is valuable.
Find your player.
Find your team.
Find your era.
Find the cards that remind you why you love sports in the first place.
The Chase Continues
More than four decades after I started collecting, I'm still chasing Mike Schmidt cards.
That's pretty incredible when you think about it.
The players change.
The products change.
The hobby changes.
But somewhere inside every lifelong collector is still that kid opening packs and hoping to find his favorite player.
For me, that kid grew up in Philadelphia.
His favorite player wore Phillies red and white and played third base.
And today, I'm still hunting for that 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt rookie.
Preferably with a really nice number at the top of the slab.
The chase continues.
Collect What You Love.
— Andrew
Morro Bay Sportscards