The 1988 baseball season saw Topps release its yearly baseball card set through traditional retail channels as always. That year Topps also partnered with discount retailer Kmart to produce an exclusive additional release of cards only available through Kmart stores. These 1988 Topps Kmart baseball cards became a highly sought after niche collection by both casual and serious collectors in the ensuing years.
While Topps released its standard 520 card primary set through all retail outlets in 1988 featuring the usual assortment of player cards, manager cards, team cards and checklists, the parallel Kmart exclusive set contained a whopping 660 total cards with a number of enhancements not found in the standard set. Chief among these were the inclusion of extra rookie cards and career retrospective cards honoring the careers of veteran players not seen since.
Collectors eagerly snapped up packs of these exclusive Kmart cards looking to build their sets and seek out the hard to find rookie and specialty cards absent from the standard Topps release. Key rookie cards in the Kmart set included future Hall of Famers Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and David Justice who all made their rookie card debuts at Kmart that year. The set featured flashback cards honoring the careers of superstars like Rollie Fingers and Eddie Murray at various points throughout their long tenures in MLB.
Another defining aspect of the 1988 Topps Kmart baseball cards was the array of special insert cards packed randomly throughout the release. Every pack had a chance to contain parallel “Silver Signature” versions of stars that were serially numbered to 1988 copies to commemorate Kmart’s founding year. Other insert subsets part of the parallel Kmart set included career highlight retrospective cards tracing iconic moments for players like Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., and Ozzie Smith among many others.
Beyond just card composition enhancements, a key visual differentiation was implemented to distinguish the Kmart release cards from the core Topps set. All Kmart cards featured a prominent “Kmart Exclusive” stamp in red ink printed prominently on the reverse. This made authenticating cards from the parallel release very easy for collectors. The exclusive stamp, coupled with scarcity from only being available through a single retailer, created a major buzz and collector demand around accruing a complete Kmart set from 1988.
When first issued, the Kmart exclusive cards originally retailed for the same prices as a standard pack of 1988 Topps cards. Initial print runs were estimated around the 200,000 complete set mark, which while substantial, would prove somewhat limited considering Kmart’s brick and mortar presence nationwide and collector demand that built over the years. Within just a couple seasons, intact 1988 Topps Kmart sets were much harder to find and complete than the common Topps set issued through all retail channels.
Many speculate this is partially due to the targeting of Kmart cards early on by enterprising collectors looking to acquire the parallels and hit cards to recognized rookie talents like Glavine and Maddux before they fully broke out. Others attribute it to Kmart’s declining national footprint during the late 80s and 90s retail industry shakeups which likely saw cards become dispersed from closed Kmart locations. Either way, by the 1990s the Kmart 1988 set achieved legendary collector status and individual cards started increasing significantly in secondary market value.
Today, an intact 1988 Topps Kmart set in Near Mint to Mint condition would conservatively fetch over $1,000 auction price online. Key individual rookie cards like a Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux in high grade could sell for hundreds on their own. Other special parallel inserts like the “Silver Signature” serial number cards remain enormously popular with collectors. Condition is absolutely critical, as even slightly played examples can see a major dip in secondary pricing due considerations to the set’s challenging quest for completion decades after issue.
In the ensuing years, Topps would release further baseball card partnerships at mass retailers like Kohl’s, Walmart and Target. The original 1988 Topps Kmart baseball card set remains the most historically important, enthusiastically collected, and highest valued of these special parallel issues due to its pioneering status. For dedicated vintage collectors three decades after they hit Kmart shelves, the 1988 Topps Kmart baseball cards still represent the ultimate challenge to seek out and accrue in their entirety.
