Hello Damir, That is a high price. I guess a 9 would go for about twice as much or 15 to 17k. Schmidt is not a first tier HOF'r so that is surprising. I was a little dissapointed in the sgc 92 price for the 51-52 parkhurst rocket richard rc. What do you think.
I thought it would be higher.

signed fessgreg

The price of this card has nothing to do with the player, it is due to the fact that it is the last card in the set. There are 12 PSA 8's and 1 8.5 with no 9's. PSA 7's show up on eBay from time to time and I have seen them go as high as $1100, but also as cheap as $650-$700.

There is only 1 card in the 1954 Topps set with fewer PSA 8's and that is Bob Chrystal. People will pay a lot for his card also, which shows that people will pay whatever they have to in order to complete a set in a high grade! Anyone who collects this set knows that this card will always command a high price, and if Ivan Irwin was the last card in the set, it wouldn't be any different. I think it's nice that the last card is a HOF'er, so at least you are getting a well known player for that price!

That really is a high price for a PSA 8 though. Sometimes cards in Auction Houses get higher prices than cards on eBay! I bet this card might have gone for less on eBay.

Greg,

First of all, like Earl said "The card's price has nothing to do with the player, it is due to the fact that it is the last card in the set."

Second, no offense but you need to learn about vintage players before making statements like "not a 1st tier HOFer". Maybe he is not but in my opinion it is impossible to undervalue Schmidt's importance to this league as he had much more decorated NHL career (or even life) than many of so-called "first tier HOFers".

elmar i know all about first card and last card prices in a set. i took that into account when i recently purchased the paddy moran c55 card(number 1 in the set) from bmw. plus paddy moran was a goalie. there are a lot of great players that have made the hof in each nhl era however there are only a chosen few who are 1st tier. in that era it was the gordie howes and rocket richards not milt schmidt. so in effect that was a really strong price for that card. signed fessgreg

I agree with Elmar. Schmidt's place in hockey history is well established. He was a fine player and the Hockey News ranked him the 27th best player of all-time in their 1998 poll.

Schmidt might be the most popular player in that set other than Howe or Sawchuk.

I'm sure the high sale also had to do with the fact that the 54 Topps set is probably the most sought after set in the vintage era. I see it the way the 52 Topps baseball set is to baseball collectors. It's the 1st year of production and is probably the nicest card design in all of hockey card collecting. All you have to do is look at the number of people on the registry who collect it.
Greg, I can't say if the Richard was high or low since there have been an incredible amount of 51 Parkies in high grade that have been sold. There were a whole bunch of PSA 9's and PSA 10's on Ebay and the major auction houses this year and wonder if that might have driven the high grade 51's down for a while.

yes Albie, and on the top...

1) 2 Stanley Cups as a player
2) was announced as a member of the HOF in the Forum the same day with Maurice Richard
3) directly or indirectly discovered and signed Bobby Orr
4) made the most unbelievable trade by getting Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield
5) won 2 Stanley Cups as a general manager...
...and only God knows what he would have accomplished if he didn't skip
3 and half seasons at World War II with the rest of the Kraut line

I've always felt that Milt Schmidt was a guy who was well respected among HOF'ers. I remember watching part of the Legends Hockey Video Series and they were interviewing someone, I don't remember who it was. He made a comment that if he could have 5 of any one player to play every position, he would want a full team of Milt Schmidt's! I thought that was a pretty impressive compliment. Ii believe that he was only talking about players from the 50's when he said it, but it was still quite a compliment.

Most of us know that first and last cards demand a premium, but in some sets it makes more of a difference. Like Damir said, the 1954 Topps set is highly prized by collectors, so the last card in this set gets a larger premium than many others. Even the #1 card in this set doesn't command the same premium as the last card. I'm not sure why though.

I agree with Greg that this card went for more than I would have predicted, but I'm still not surprised by the price. I understand that everyone gets a little crazy sometimes when they see something that they have wanted for months or years. The difference is everyone's budget. I don't know if I will ever be able to shell out $6700 for a single card, but I have spent over $2000 for a card and I didn't think I would ever do anything that crazy! It just takes me longer to save up for a purchase like that than it does some people and I probably won't do it again soon.

I wonder if the buyer of the Schmidt PSA 8 will ever run across this thread and read what everyone thinks about his purchase?

Earl

"...that era it was the gordie howes and rocket richards not milt schmidt"

What era, Greg? We are talking about totally different eras. Milt won all his Caps before Howe and Rocket even started to play in NHL...

And by the way,
if you have NHL Network channel, Saturday 12/20 4:30 your time they will repeat 30 minutes "Pioneers. Milt Schmidt" series. Very interesting.

"I was a little dissapointed in the sgc 92 price for the 51-52 parkhurst rocket richard rc. What do you think."

It's a very nice card but I would have a hard time laying out $4700+ for that centering. '51 Parkies just don't look very attractive when they're off centered.

I agree with the previous post. The card appeared to be diamond cut. Not that I wouldn't be a very proud owner of that card...

Nathanael

Since we were discussing Milt Schmidt, this card is in the PSA Top 50 Rookies set. What do you think this would go for on ebay or in an auction house? I would consider trading it if someone had high grade 1933 Hamilton Gum cards to offer since that is the set I am collecting at the moment. Sorry about the scan, my scanner is on the fritz.

Chris

went for around $2500.

There's also a 8.5 that sold for $600 recently.