The 1988 Topps Big Baseball card set was released at the end of the 1987 baseball season and featured enlarged 5 inch by 7 inch versions of Topps’ flagship baseball card designs from that year. Unlike modern “Trading Cards for Big Hands” sets which are designed primarily for younger collectors, the 1988 Topps Big cards were clearly aimed at the adult collector market and featured larger photographic images and statistics alongside biographical information on some of baseball’s biggest stars from the late 1980s.
The set totals only 132 cards but features many of the game’s top players from 1987 such as Ozzie Smith, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, George Brett, Dave Winfield, and Darryl Strawberry among others. Rosters included players from both the American and National Leagues. The backs of the cards carried over the same basic grey and red color scheme as the standard 1987 Topps issues but featured larger fonts that made player stats and biographical details easier to read on the enlarged cards.
cards began with Bob Horner and run consecutively through the set concluding with card #132 featuring managers Whitey Herzog and Dick Williams. Notable rookie cards in the set included Hall of Famers Barry Larkin, Mark McGwire, and Tom Glavine in their first Topps Big Baseball card appearances. Among the stars absent from the checklist were retired legends like Reggie Jackson now working as broadcasters as well as holdouts like Fernando Valenzuela who did not have agreements in place with Topps at the time.
As with other Topps Big issues of the period, the photos on the 1988 cards were often reprints from previous Topps regular or smaller size cards rather than new poses commissioned specifically for the expanded format. This helped keep production costs lower but resulted in some images looking grainier when enlarged to the bigger card stock dimensions. Still, the added size made for a fun visual change of pace compared to the standard cards that remained the sports card industry standard through the late 80s.
Compared to modern sports card values, the large number of certified Hall of Famers and superstars included resulted in many high-profile cards from the 1988 Topps Big Baseball set retaining collector demand and respectable secondary market prices decades later. Rookie cards like Larkin, McGwire, and Glavine as well as star performers like Brett, Boggs, Clemens, and Canseco regularly trade hands on auction sites and sports card show circuits for twenty to several hundred dollars or more depending on grade.
Towards the lower end of the checklist, many role players and lesser known pitchers can still be acquired in solid grades for just a few dollars or less. The short print run along with the novelty of the oversized card dimensions have helped the1988 Topps Big cards retain nostalgic charm for baseball card fans who collected them as kids in the late 1980s. While packs were likely not cheap even by the standards of the day, the flagship players included and fun visual novelty made this an desirable high-end product when first released over 30 years ago.
Error cards are quite rare in the set, though the #29 card featuring Jose Canseco was printed with his name misspelled as “Jose Canseco”. Other minor variations exist like randomly inserted photo or stats swap variations, but true spectacular errors of omitted statistics, misnamed players or swapped photos are very uncommon finds for enthusiasts chasing oddball outliers within the overall checklist design concept. Condition sensitive aspects like centering, corners, and edges hold extra premium significance for high-end specimens given the large card dimensions also magnify even minor production cutting and handling flaws over time.
While relatively low in total issue numbers compared to other annual Flagship baseball releases from Topps over the years, the 1988 Topps Big Baseball card set stands out as a unique large-format product that successfully capitalized on the growing collector demand for showcase pieces during the late 1980s boom period of the modern sports card industry. Featuring key rookie cards, Hall of Famers and superstars of the era in an oversized easy-to-view presentation, this Topps Big set remains a nostalgically appealing and desirable long-term hold for dedicated baseball card collectors and investors even decades after packs first hit the hobby shop shelves in late 1987.
