My well loved 1975 Topps baseball set
BaltimoreYankee
Posts: 3,118 ✭✭✭✭✭
Back in 1975, 12 year old me put together my first complete set of cards. I bought 2 vending boxes from Renata Galasso in Brooklyn, NY where I lived ($4.99 per vending box!) and completed the set through trades and pack purchases. The cards were pitched, flipped, etc and as a result, not one card in the set has 4 sharp corners. The set is worth much more to me than it would be to anyone else but I do enjoy going through it every once in a while.
The Rick Auerbach card was the last one I needed to complete the set. One day, I found a bunch of torn up, wrinkled cards in the street and this was one of them (I later purchased a better copy but kept this original). I realized several years ago that the Red Sox team card was cut from a sheet of team checklists (and purchased a normal one to have with the set as well).
I always dug the Herb Washington 'pinch runner' card and memorized all the 1951-1974 MVPs (as I'm sure a lot of kids did). Bob Watson scored baseball's millionth run in 1975 and Frank Robinson was MLB's first black manager that year. Up and coming stars at the time included Madlock, McBride and Tanana.
Comments
That was the first year I ordered the complete set from Renata. After accumulating close to 2500 cards completing my 1974 set I couldn’t face doing that again! I still bought packs though.
Thanks for sharing
Durning covid I almost completed (just need the Brett) a very well loved 1975 set. I had about 400 cards that sat in a box for decades pulled them out, jumped on ebay and other places for the rest. Totally enjoyed the chase and now it is one of my favorite sets.
Based on their excellent condition you didn’t even get to second base!
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
I have plenty of downgrades if you need them.
Farewell Ryno.
https://www.yankee.blue/baseball-cards/renata-galasso-should-be-in-the-hall-of-fame/
Guess we were from the same area. I’m from Sunset Park. Spent my younger years at Galasso’s. From Wonderland Stores to the stores on 10th Ave. Knew them all, Bill H, Renatta, her father and aunt all the way down to Charles who worked there putting sets together and even when he worked for Bill (Capital Cards) after the divorce
I love this writeup. I'm curious - what is the timeline of Galasso being on the hobby scene versus Fritsch? Do you guys remember Galasso ads prior to seeing Fritsch?
The picture in the Galasso article (as well as the pictures that the article points you toward on flickr) reminds me of a simpler time in the hobby, right around when I started collecting. I wish it was still that way. I also wish I would have known what it was like to collect in the 70's.
Thanks for sharing. Like you, my first set I collected as a kid (1976 Topps baseball) is well loved but worth far more to me than to anyone else. Galasso was the bomb back in the day. I got my 1977 football set through her.
I was in Park Slope, right across the street from Prospect Park. I can remember going to Capital Cards probably as recently as 1990 or so.
Tanana, Madlock and Bake all had excellent careers and were also super-cool. Tanana was on an HoF track until injuries but him.
Great story.
anyone know if Renatta is still alive? I never bought from her, but like hearing stories about the old time dealers.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I started buying packs of Football in 1976 and 1977. Had Payton and Largent rookies but Staubach and the Cowboys were my guys. Didn't try to build a complete set since I was more into comics back then.
1978 is when I switched to Baseball cards and I was determined to build a complete set.
Needed only the Joe Torre Mets manager card to finish, but none of the other kids could ever get that card.
Packs upon packs and no Torre. Was it a SP? Was it pulled out of circulation? What the hell.
Then finally one of the older kids (16yo) got it and I traded all my doubles, easily 500+ cards for it.
Then in 1979 I decided was just going to buy a complete set from Renata Galasso, plus it came free with a series of the Black and White Galasso Greats cards, which I thought was cool. Shortly after, I bought the 1977 complete set from her as well.
She should be. Bill is too I believe.
86th St store or 10th Ave?
I didn't know they had 2 locations. At the time (around 1990), I lived on 83rd street in Bensonhurst so it was probably the 86th street store(?). I remember if I wanted, say, a 1976 Reggie Jackson, they would hand me a small stack of them and I could pick which one I wanted.
John 'The Count' Montefusco was another up and comer then. He went 15-9 with 215 Ks for the Giants in '75 but didn't get a Topps card until 1976.
I bought two of renatta 1977 vending baseball boxes via mail order. Fun times
He and Renata owned a complete row of stores on 10th Ave.
After they split up, he opened the 86th St store and once the divorce was finalized he got half the properties on 10th Ave and moved the store (Capital Cards ) there. Literally 50 ft away from Renata Galasso.
I was born on 21St Ave between 86th and Benson. We moved to Sunset Park when I was 3
11 year old me got my dad to order the complete 1975 set from Renata Galasso for my birthday. $6.60, a penny a card was the pitch, I believe, which was pretty good as I know the 10 card packs had gone to $0.15. Most likely my first purchase from her. I had catalogs from Stan Martucci and Wholesale Cards at about the same time. I believe I had ordered from TCMA prior to that time (the non-postcard sized All-Time Greats) and possibly Fritsch.
First thing I did was take a black marker to mark a straight-line through the check boxes on the regular checklists. Then, I probably sorted by team, then by number a few times over a few years before settling on numerical order. The MVP cards were the highlight of the set after Mike Schmidt and other Phillies.
I grew up in Bay Ridge but visited the Galasso storefront in ‘77.
i did the same thing in 1979. exactly.
The one item I always wanted from Galasso and she wouldn’t part with was a framed uncut sheet of 1971 Greatest Moments, it was the entire set plus DPs
Was RG a serious collector herself?
I'm almost positive I saw that for sale on eBay maybe 5 years ago: $10K OBO with the seller being Capital Cards. Could be wrong about the seller but pretty sure it was in Brooklyn.
Capital Cards was Bill, Renata’s ex husband and yes that’s the one. It never sold.
Bill liquidated all the cards she found when her father passed. I must of bought 250000 cards from that liquidation.
In fact I’m going to text Charles to see if Renata still has it. I believe she wanted 7 back then with I thought was too high, but what do I know. I sold a 71 Topps sheet with 2 Munson, Blyleven and Jackson’s for like $500 or so, don’t remember.
A question for the 1975 collectors out there: Did any of you send in for this wrapper offer, or have any of you ever seen one of these plaques out in the wild?
.
Better a well loved set with a lifetime of memories than no set at all!
D's: 50P,49S,45D+S,43D,41S,40D,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 241,435,610,654 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings