I kicked off my exploration of 1978 Topps Baseball and its accompanying sets last week with a comprehensive guide to the 1978 Topps base set. This article will explore Topps’ 1978 collaboration with Burger King. Topps kicked off their partnership with the national fast food chain in 1977 with a set of cards devoted to the New York Yankees, and in 1978, they expanded that partnership to four cities and their teams: the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers.
First, I’ll provide an overview of the entire 1978 Topps Burger King Series. Then, I’ll compare the Burger King and base Topps set designs before discussing the distribution and packaging of 1978 Topps Burger King cello packs, wrapping up with details for each of the four team sets.
1978 Topps Burger King Set Profile
Topps’ history with Burger King launched in 1977 and continued through 1980. But in 1978 specifically, they issued four sets of 23 standard-sized cards (22 player cards + the checklist) in major metropolitan areas. So, kids 14 and under in Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit, and New York could get a pack of three cards plus an unnumbered checklist by purchasing any Burger King Sandwich.
The partnership focused on pretty big markets, so despite the Tigers finishing the 1977 season 26 games behind the Yankees, with a 74-88 record, they still got a set. This was lucky for us collectors since the Tigers had a trio of great rookies in Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, and Jack Morris. This meant we got solo rookie cards for them rather than the multi-player cards Topps included in their base set.
1978 Topps Burger King Design
The 1978 Topps Burger Kind cards looked identical to Topps base set cards with one major and one minor distinction. The major distinction was the different card numbers on the back. The minor difference is that the back of the Burger King cards don’t have the sheet designation next to the copyright on the back that the base cards do. Also, a few cards used different player mages, and I’ll highlight them in the team overviews below, but the design was the same. The back of the cards also highlighted the “Play Ball” game from the base set. But you would need to eat a heck of a lot of Burger King sandwiches to get enough cards to play!
Here’s the front and back of the 1978 Burger King #21 and base Topps set #200, Reggie Jackson cards.
1978 Topps Burger King Distribution and Packs
As I said, Topps and Burger King distributed the cards in cello packs of three cards plus a team checklist. Topps got the cards to Burger King packed in plain white boxes since they weren’t meant for sale that way. However, here’s an example of a box of 48 3-card New York Yankees 1978 Topps Burger King cello packs authenticated by the Baseball Card Exchange.
And here’s another 1978 Topps Burger King Yankees box I saw on Facebook showing how Topps arranged the packs in the box and all the packs displayed individually.
From an individual pack perspective, PSA has authenticated and slabbed 14 from the New York Yankees series, 47 from the Detroit Tigers, and two each for the Astros and Rangers series. 28 of the Tigers packs feature one of the big-3 rookies showing on the back.
For example, here’s a PSA 7-graded 3-card cello pack featuring Jack Morris.
Examples with stars showing have been selling for quite a bit on eBay lately. A PSA 7 with Whitaker on the back sold for $109 in July 2023, a PSA 9 pack with Trammel showing went for $199 in July 2023 (a PSA 7 sold for $129 in July 2023, too), and a PSA 8 with Morris on the back sold for $219 in May 2023.
Back in 2016, Collect Auctions offered this lot of nine unopened three-card packs of 1978 Topps Burger King Detroit Tigers cards, five with Trammell showing and four featuring Whitaker—the auction closed for $124.
1978 Topps Burger King Houston Astros
Today, the Houston Astros cards are the least desirable and expensive of the four teams. A complete team set on eBay costs less than $10, including shipping.
And, PSA has only graded 120 cards among the Astros Topps Burger King set, which is fewer than any of the Tigers stars individually. There are two interesting tidbits related to the Astros players in this set. First, Dave Bergman got his own card, rather than being part of a multi-player Rookie Outfielder card in the Topps base set, and Jesus Alou was included here but didn’t have a card in the base set.
Here’s the entire 1978 Topps Burger King Houston Astros Checklist:
- 1 Bill Virdon
- 2 Joe Ferguson
- 3 Ed Herrmann
- 4 J.R. Richard
- 5 Joe Niekro
- 6 Floyd Bannister
- 7 Joaquin Andujar
- 8 Ken Forsch
- 9 Mark Lemongello
- 10 Joe Sambito
- 11 Gene Pentz
- 12 Bob Watson
- 13 Julio Gonzalez
- 14 Enos Cabell
- 15 Roger Metzger
- 16 Art Howe
- 17 Jose Cruz
- 18 Cesar Cedeno
- 19 Terry Puhl
- 20 Wilbur Howard
- 21 Dave Bergman
- 22 Jesus Alou
- No Number Checklist
1978 Topps Burger King Texas Rangers
The Rangers’ team set is a little pricer than the Astros cards, as a team set costs between $10 and $15 on eBay.
PSA has also graded several more Rangers than Astros cards, with 294 in the pop report, but again, that’s less than Trammel alone.
Topps changed the images of quite a few of these cards: Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, but also Jon Matlack, Reggie Cleveland, Al Oliver, and John Lowenstein, are all pictured on different teams in the base set; Bobby Thomson wasn’t included in the base set but has a Burger King card; and Bump Wills’ Burger King card doesn’t have a rookie cup logo on the front.
Here’s the entire 1978 Topps Burger King Texas Rangers Checklist:
- 1 Billy Hunter
- 2 Jim Sundberg
- 3 John Ellis
- 4 Doyle Alexander
- 5 Jon Matlack
- 6 Dock Ellis
- 7 Doc Medich
- 8 Fergie Jenkins
- 9 Len Barker
- 10 Reggie Cleveland
- 11 Mike Hargrove
- 12 Bump Wills
- 13 Toby Harrah
- 14 Bert Campaneris
- 15 Sandy Alomar
- 16 Kurt Bevacqua
- 17 Al Oliver
- 18 Juan Beniquez
- 19 Claudell Washington
- 20 Richie Zisk
- 21 John Lowenstein
- 22 Bobby Thompson
- No Number Checklist
1978 Topps Burger King New York Yankees
The Yankees team set will cost you a bit more; they are the Yankees and were coming off a World Series win in 1977.
PSA has graded more than 1,000 Burger King Yankees cards; Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson are the most graded, and most are PSA 8s and 9s.
Three cards in the Burger King set have different front poses compared to the base set: Goose Gossage (close-up vs. action shot), Rawly Eastwick, and Jim Spencer were on different teams.
PSA 10 Reggie Jackson Burger King cards have surged in price lately, commanding prices between $550 and $650 compared to just $200 and $250 a few years ago. A PSA 10 Munson sold for $365 in 2020.
Here’s the entire 1978 Topps Burger King New York Yankees Checklist:
- 1 Billy Martin
- 2 Thurman Munson
- 3 Cliff Johnson
- 4 Ron Guidry
- 5 Ed Figueroa
- 6 Dick Tidrow
- 7 Catfish Hunter
- 8 Don Gullett
- 9 Sparky Lyle
- 10 Goose Gossage
- 11 Rawly Eastwick
- 12 Chris Chambliss
- 13 Willie Randolph
- 14 Graig Nettles
- 15 Bucky Dent
- 16 Jim Spencer
- 17 Fred Stanley
- 18 Lou Piniella
- 19 Roy White
- 20 Mickey Rivers
- 21 Reggie Jackson
- 22 Paul Blair
- No Number Checklist
1978 Topps Burger King Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers set is the most significant team set in the 1978 Burger King Series because of the inclusion of individual rookie cards of Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker, and Jack Morris. Thank goodness Detroit was a big market in the late 70s, or we would never have got this set because, as I said earlier, they were mediocre in 1977! Now, a lot of folks won’t consider the individual Tigers rookie cards TRUE rookies since they weren’t nationally released, but that doesn’t make them any less popular.
PSA has graded over 2500 cards from the set, with Trammell having the most, followed by Whitaker and Morris. And they’re pricey cards now. A PSA 10 Trammel changed hands for $2k in May 2020, a PSA 9 Whitaker sold for $519 in February 2023, and a PSA 10 Morris sold for $1374 in June 2019.
Besides the rookies featured on their own cards, other variations from the base set include Jack Billingham, Jim Slaton, and Steve Dillard, who were all pictured on different teams.
Here’s the entire 1978 Topps Burger King Detroit Tigers Checklist:
- 1 Ralph Houk
- 2 Milt May
- 3 John Wockenfuss
- 4 Mark Fidrych
- 5 Dave Rozema
- 6 Jack Billingham
- 7 Jim Slaton
- 8 Jack Morris
- 9 John Hiller
- 10 Steve Foucault
- 11 Milt Wilcox
- 12 Jason Thompson
- 13 Lou Whitaker
- 14 Aurelio Rodriguez
- 15 Alan Trammell
- 16 Steve Dillard
- 17 Phil Mankowski
- 18 Steve Kemp
- 19 Ron LeFlore
- 20 Tim Corcoran
- 21 Mickey Stanley
- 22 Rusty Staub
- No Number Checklist
Despite the nearly identical design, these four regionally distributed 1978 Topps Burger King sets augment the base set well. This is particularly noteworthy when considering the updated images and individual rookie cards of famous players.
The Burger King promotion wasn’t the only one Topps ran in 1978. Later this week, I’ll continue highlighting the collectibles accompanying the 1978 Topps baseball flagship product when I highlight the team checklists that Topps distributed via a wrapper redemption.
Happy collecting!