Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
“How can you say you’ve got the whole set when you haven’t got what it came in?” Here’s Ed Henderson’s look at the collectibility of wrappers from the November 1992 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine.
PS: I’d love to see a resurgence of multi-page hobby writing like this today.
In this article, I’m continuing my series through the world of 1978 Topps baseball cards with a look at the unique little oddball set Topps released in partnership with Zest Soap. The set was limited to just five cards; they look nearly identical to the regular Topps base cards and remain popular with a small group of collectors. In this article, I’ll explore the 1978 Topps Zest Soap promotion details, distribution, packaging, printing, and the current market for these intriguing cards.
Before we get started, though, here are the previous three articles in the 1978 Topps baseball series:
Topps produced this set of five standard-sized cards featuring Hispanic baseball stars as a promotion for Proctor & Gamble in 1978. The five players included were:
A hobbyist on the Collectors Universe Message Boards wrote, “Proctor & Gamble targeted Zest Soap towards Latin American men because of its unique pH formula for Dry Skin. Looking for an incentive to get Latino men to try Zest, P&G coupled with Topps to produce the Zest Baseball Card Set. The Latin American women already had Camay Soap and the Latin American Children had Ivory Soap.”
The cards have the same design as the base 1978 Topps cards, and except for Willie Montanez, who was traded from the Braves to the Mets, the fronts use the same images too.
The backs are a little different. First, they’re bilingual (Spanish and English). Second, the 1978 Topps Zest cards don’t have the play ball game on the back; it’s been replaced by MLB and MLBPA logos. Third, the card numbers are different. It’s funny though that Zest isn’t mentioned anywhere on the cards.
The five cards were issued as complete sets in a cello package via a mail-in promotion requiring two zest soap wrappers and a certificate. While the set is tough to find, it’s not expensive, perhaps due to the player selection.
We have one key advertising product that explains how the 1978 Topps Zest promotion worked. In their Spring 2018 catalog, Robert Edward Auctions sold this 1978 Topps Zest Soap Store Advertising Display and a complete set in its original packaging for $270.
Here’s how they described the lot:
Enormous point-of-sale advertising display for 1978 Topps “Zest Soap” Baseball Trading Cards, accompanied by a complete set of five cards still in their original package as issued. This extremely rare advertising display is designed with all five giant-versions of the issued cards from the set pictured at the top and the text printed in Spanish. This is the first example of this advertising display that we have ever offered or seen! Due to its size and shape, as expected, the display (24 x 39 inches at its widest points) has some obvious flaws including creases and edge wear. Overall in remarkable condition, especially for a store advertising display of this type, the piece presents as Excellent and is perfect for display, as intended. The original mail-order slips are still intact. This is an outstanding example of this seldom-seen advertising display, and one that would be at home in any advanced baseball-advertising collection.
The top of the display translates (I used Google Translate) to Zest Baseball Stars with the word free below it; then, we have the pictures of the five cards. Next to the two bars of soap, the following terms say, “5 baseball cards with the purchase of 2 “bath size” zests.” The ad then explained that you could get a Cesar Cedeno poster by mail with the purchase of 8 “bath size” Zest soaps. The fine printed said to see the required certificate for complete details, that the offer was good from August 1, 1978, to November 1, 1978, and that there was a limit of 2 posters per name or address.
The same Collectors Universe Forum Thread that explained why P&G targeted Zest Soap towards Latin American men also had the following scans of the mail-in card for the set, which is written entirely in Spanish.
It explained to send two full-size Zest bath-size wrappers for each set of five cards and that the certificate was required to be included with the order. The additional details along the bottom mentioned that the offer was only valid in 27 states, that the offer was limited to two sets of five cards per name or address, and that you’d get the cards in about 6-8 weeks. The back also showed that the offer card was printed in May 1978, long after the base set was released, helping explain how Topps could update the Montanez image in this set.
Regarding the pack that was sent, almost every 1978 Topps Zest cello pack I’ve seen has Manny Mota on top and Montanez on the bottom, but I have seen a single example with Andujar showing.
I’m unsure if some cards got flipped in packaging, but you can see on this YouTube break of a pack that had Mota face up on top and Montanez on the back that each card was face up in the pack. After Mota, you had Figueroa, but it was upside down. Campaneris came next, positioned in the same direction as Figueroa, followed by Andujar, upside down, then Montanez on the bottom, upside down once again.
I’ve also seen another peculiarity: the Topps Archives mentions that the cards were unavailable with the product in stores. But in my research, I encountered a set shrink-wrapped around three bars of soap. This offer is slightly different since it came with a three-pack of soap, while the mail-in offer only required two wrappers. If you know more about this example, please contact me or leave a comment.
Lelands offered two 110-card full-production uncut sheets featuring the five different 1978 Topps Zest players in an auction in December 2003.
Lelands paired the two Zest sheets with a 1974 Topps Traded Baseball Uncut Sheet, and it appears the auction’s reserve wasn’t met. The odd thing about the 1978 Topps Zest sheets is that while most uncut sheets have 132 cards, these only have 110. It’s like they’re missing two extra rows of 11 cards. However, they do look complete from a bordering perspective.
As I wrote earlier, the promotion only lasted a few months, from August to November 1978, so the distribution was limited. Hence, the cards are a little challenging to come by today. PSA-graded copies are also scarce, with only 89 total examples across the five-card set.
While the cards are scarce, they’re not that pricey. In 2019, the following five PSA-graded cards were sold on eBay for $129.99: a PSA 9 (OC) Andujar, a PSA 9 Campaneris, a PSA 9 Figueroa, a PSA 9 Montanez, and a PSA 6 Mota. From a raw perspective, complete sets sell for between $10 and $25.
PFP Cards have the highest graded set on the registry, with all five cards being PSA 9s.
Now, I’ll share more details about each 1978 Topps Zest Soap card and show the player’s base 1978 Topps card.
PSA has graded 18 Joaquin Andújar cards, including a single PSA 10 example, which was recently listed on eBay as a Buy It Now item for $699.99 in the summer of 2023.
Ten of the other graded Andujar cards are PSA 9s, but they haven’t sold for much historically. One 9 sold for $8.49 in August 2020, and one of the two PSA 8s sold for $10.99 in August 2017. Just last month (July 2024), a PSA 8 was sold on eBay with a best-offer buy-it-now sale of $42.90.
A few raw copies have also been available for just a few dollars.
PSA has graded 16 Zest Soap Campaneris cards, including five PSA 9s and eight PSA 8s. One of the 9s sold for $75 in June 2020, an 8 sold for $4.99 in August 2020, and another 8 sold for $10.99 in December 2017.
Just like the Andujar last month (July 2024), a PSA 8 Campaneris was sold on eBay with a best-offer buy-it-now sale of $42.90.
PSA has graded 17 Figueroa Topps Zest Soap cards with three 9s and nine 8s. However, no examples appear on the auction prices realized page for the card.
In the past, raw Ed Figueroa cards have been listed on eBay for between $.90 and $12.99.
There are twenty PSA-graded Montanez Zest Soap cards, including five 9s and ten of 8s. An 8 sold for $4.99 in August 2020, another 8 sold for $22.99 in April 2020, and a 9 sold for $13.5 in September 2016.
Again, just like the Andujar and Campaneris last month (July 2024), a PSA 8 Montanez was sold on eBay for $42.90, with a best-offer buy-it-now sale.
Mota has 18 PSA-graded cards, including a single 10, four 9s, and eleven 8s. But one of those 8s sold for just $1.36 in September 2020.
I’m surprised this set hasn’t become more popular, given the larger number of Hispanic players in the majors and collectors in the hobby today, along with its uniqueness. I guess it’s just not mainstream enough for most collectors; however, if you’re looking for a nice post-war set that would be affordable and display well with an unopened pack, this is a great set to go after.
In May 2024, I shared the original football card artwork for Chuck Hunsinger’s 1952 Bowman card and mentioned that the original art was first sold to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989, so I wanted to share all the pages from the catalog with every B&W photo.
Not including the 10% buyers premium, the four priciest 1952 Bowman football card original art pieces were $6k for Doak Walker (note: my list says E61A was $6k, which could be Sammy Baugh rather than Doak Walker), $5k for Frank Gifford, $3,750 for Otto Graham, and $3,750 for George Halas.
It would be impossible to track down each piece of original artwork for a single collection today, but I may try to find pictures of them for a page here on the site as a future project. Happy collecting!
In addition to their base set and partnership with Burger King in 1978, Topps offered a full sheet of team checklists as a wrapper redemption. The cards share the same design as the team checklists distributed as part of the base set, with just a few card stock differences. Topps designed the cards for collectors to cut out individually, so uncut sheets are pretty tough to come by – individual cards aren’t that common, either! In this article, I’ll give a basic overview of the 1978 Topps Team Checklists, discuss the wrapper redemption offer, share a few surviving uncut sheets and compare them to the base set’s uncut sheets, and finish by sharing individual card details.
Topps offered collectors another way to keep track of all their 1978 baseball cards, tell at a glance which cards to trade and learn about players’ positions and team line-ups. They did this by offering kids an uncut sheet of the 26 team checklist cards. The sheet also had another offer, a collectors card box, printed on it to fill out a 3×9 grid. From a design perspective, the cards on the sheet were the same as the team checklists that Topps distributed as part of the base set.
There were three 1978 Topps baseball wrapper variations; one offered collectors the 26 team checklist cards.
Here’s a centered image of the specific offer.
You can see in the image that for 50 cents and a wrapper, Topps would send back a tri-folded sheet of all 26 team checklist cards. The picture indicates that Topps intended for fans to cut the cards out.
The redemption ran for quite a long time, ending in December 1978. So perhaps this helped Topps sell more base cards later in the year, motivating collectors to complete the set.
As I said, the uncut sheet was tri-folded and included all 26 baseball team checklists. The cards were identical to the base set, but Topps printed them on a thinner stock, making them easier to cut. The card stock on the back also appears super white, which is the obvious way to identify the handout cut cards from those distributed in the base set.
Unlike the base set team checklists, each team was only single-printed. For the base set, 24 team checklists were printed on sheet F.
But the Expos and Blue Jays team cards were double-printed on sheet D.
As I shared in the deep dive of the 1978 Topps base set, each card’s back has the sheet it was printed on listed on the back. That’s no different for the redemption team checklists; they have the same sheet numbers on the back despite being printed on the same wrapper redemption sheet.
I’ve only been able to track down a single sale of an uncut sheet panel, and Heritage sold it in June 2019 for $44. However, it’s a weird one, and the misprint of colors doesn’t align with the team checklist cards. The sheet measures 10 1/2″ by 22 1/2″.
Each team in MLB had a checklist card. First, here’s an example of a hand-cut card for the Phillies.
And here is a Phillies’ example from the base set,
And here are the two Phillies card backs for comparison.
You can see the white background of the card that Topps distributed as part of the wrapper redemption. I’m sure, in hand, you can also see obvious signs of cutting/trimming that aren’t apparent on factory sheet cut cards.
Next, here’s a Kansas City Royals hand-cut example; notice the Sheet F designation on the back.
I found a Blue Jays hand-cut example, and it’s a little tough to make out, but you can see the D next to the copyright information along the right-hand side, just like on the base Blue Jays card.
Compared to how many individual team checklists PSA has graded from the base set, there are relatively few sheet hand-cut graded examples, just 365 in total, including one advertising card! The population distribution is pretty varied, with 69 PSA 10s, 78 PSA 9s, and 52 PSA 8s as the most common grades. The most graded specific cards are the Angeles (36), Royals (33), Reds (30), Yankees (29), and Phillies (26).
Here are some individual card sales data:
The 1978 Topps baseball team checklist mail-in redemption was a cost-effective way for kids who couldn’t afford to rip a ton of 20-cent packs to get a bunch of their favorite teams’ cards for just 50 cents. It also made a great display piece and probably motivated a lot of collectors to buy more packs to complete their sets. But these checklists and the Burger King cards weren’t the only promotions Topps ran; I have two more articles to share in the coming days highlighting the 1978 Topps Zest Soap set and the six-card panels Topps included in a specific release of Scholastic’s Dynamite Magazine.
1941 Play Ball uncut panels aren’t as rare as you’d think; strips seem to be popping up for sale pretty regularly these days, but I still think this one featuring DiMaggio, Gomez, Case, and Dickey is cool.
Mastro auctioned the panel in their April/May 2008 Sports & Americana catalog and included the following description for the item:
The 1941 Play Ball “High Number” series’ four concluding entries are represented in this rare, still-attached quartet panel. The approximately 3-1/8″ × 10″ relic-which contains, from left to right, #’s 71 Joe DiMaggio,
72 Lefty Gomez, 69 George Case and 70 Bill Dickey-is fully printed on both sides and reveals slightly irregular edge cuts. Its colors are fresh and clear, with a trace of scuffing affecting Case’s depiction. Mild evidence of factory handling is largely restricted to the periphery, and there are no discernible creases. Display quality is minimally Excellent. An extraordinary foursome, and virtually never seen in this configuration! Minimum Bid $300
The priciest related item I could find is when REA sold a 1941 Gum Inc. Play Ball Uncut High-Number Proof Sheet for $60k in 2017.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Here’s the original artwork for the 1966 Topps, Red Bat puzzle-back series, Batman #19A “Leap for Life” card.
Mastro offered it in their April 2004 Americana Premier Catalog Auction. Here’s the complete description:
Presented is the 4-3/4” x 3-3/8” original artwork for the 1966 Topps Red Bat puzzle-back series, card number 19A. The larger-sized, painted version of “Leap for Life” graphically illustrates the crimefighter’s daring and determination as he bounds from the top of a moving railroad car in pursuit of a villain. Here is an incredibly finely detailed painting, one that delivers the essence of a set which, for many, helped to define the youthful “formative years” A breathtaking artwork! It is an absolutely unique and one-of-a-kind item, and a rare foundation artifact from the second series of Topps’ immortal Batman cards. The artwork displays at a bright EX/MT level, and an EX (o/c) example of the finished card, as issued, accompanies. Minimum Bid $500.
Many other original Norm Saunders-painted Topps Batman cards have been sold over the years, many for well over $10k.