Friday, April 2, 2021

46 Years Ago, These Were Some Guys

The 1975 SSPC set is one that really feels "vintage" to me, as it's full of guys who either retired right before I was old enough to pay close attention to baseball, or who were in the process of flaming out. 1975, man. We still had Hank Aaron and Brooks Robinson playing baseball. Bob Gibson. Claude Osteen. Harmon Killebrew. Vada Pinson. Juan Marichal. That's amazing to me. They're not all in the '75 SSPC set, which actually came out in 1976, but some of them are. Mr. Brooks Robinson, who hit .201 that year, is pictured to your left. He's card #392.

I often tack on a few SSPCs to build my set into various online orders that I do, and it's starting to get pretty hefty in the card box, which I love. I picked up another 20 or so last week, and these are some of them. Every time I order them from Card Barrel they're like they were just made last month. Did kids ever actually own these cards? Seriously, I've yet to see a beat-up 1975 SSPC - mine would all be "PSA 9" or "PSA 10" if anyone cared enough to grade them. So here are some dudes that were some guys 46 years ago, starting with Jim "Catfish" Hunter:


Or how about Jim Palmer?


Or his Orioles teammate Tommy Davis - a guy I associate with Dodgers teams of the early/mid 60s?


Or Dick Allen, who'd been AL MVP in 1972 but was tailing off by this point?


This is just a really fun set to cobble together, and listen, if any of you actually know the answer to the question about how these were sold to youngsters back in the day, I'd love to hear it. Gracias!
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7 comments:

  1. A MonteithApril 2, 2021 at 7:42 AM

    IIRC these weren't released until the early 80's and then only as a set. Sold through Renata Galasso.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JayApril 2, 2021 at 7:43 AM

      Well that would make some sense, then. Thanks!

      Delete
    2. A MonteithApril 2, 2021 at 7:54 AM

      Sure. I can't be sure but I believe they couldn't release them until Fleer and Donruss broke the Topps monopoly on baseball cards.

      That said, they are nice cards. A few guys in there never had a card with Topps. Forgotten names like Paul Powell.

      Delete
    3. GTTApril 2, 2021 at 5:53 PM

      They were sold as a set, I believe, but they were released by SSPC in 1976. Renata Gallaso did put out some sets like "Stars of the 50s" around that time, with the same design, which is probably what A Monteith is thinking about.

      Delete
    4. A MonteithApril 3, 2021 at 9:11 AM

      That's probably right as memories get muddled. Did SSPC do much of their own mail order business? I don't think I ever saw their ads in the magazines like Galasso and Fritsch had. (This being around 1980).

      Delete
  2. gcrlApril 2, 2021 at 2:03 PM

    i think night owl did a post on this set a long while back. the copyright is 1975 but were sold in 1976? i appreciate the aforementioned powell card, along with charlie manuel's card. both dodgers that didn't have other mainstream dodger cards.

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  3. FujiApril 2, 2021 at 8:18 PM

    I agree with you about the condition thing. I've rarely come across a well loved 1976 SSPC card. I purchased a complete set back in 2011 for $28 (+ $5 shipping) and they looked like they had never seen daylight.

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