Most Valuable 1978 Topps Baseball Cards — Ranked by Live Market Comps

The 1978 Topps set is a 726-card monument to late-70s baseball — and one four-player rookie card towers over all of it. Card #707, "Rookie Shortstops," squeezes Paul Molitor and Alan Trammell (plus Mickey Klutts and U.L. Washington) onto a single card, giving two Hall of Famers one shared rookie. Below is the current top of the set, ranked by raw-card sale comps tracked in the AgentGrail catalog — not a price guide's wishful thinking, but what copies have actually been selling for.

Methodology: rankings use recent raw (ungraded) sale comps in our catalog as of July 2026, across the 404 cards in the set we currently price. Values move with the market and condition dominates vintage pricing — a sharp copy and a creased copy of the same card can differ by 10x or more. High-grade slabbed copies sell far above every number here.

The top 10

1. #707 Rookie Shortstops — Paul Molitor / Alan Trammell RC (~$110 raw). Two Hall of Fame rookies on one card; the undisputed key to the set, and the card where grading pays fastest.
2. #400 Nolan Ryan (~$40). Express-era Ryan in an Angels uniform — the set's biggest star card and perpetually liquid.
3. #270 Carlton Fisk (~$35). One of the tougher HOF cards to find well-centered in this set.
4. #72 Andre Dawson (~$32). The Hawk's second-year card, still riding his Hall of Fame demand.
5. #700 Johnny Bench (~$30). Big Red Machine premium — the #700 slot was Topps giving Bench hero-number treatment.
6. #160 Jim Palmer (~$26). Steady HOF demand in a photogenic issue.
7. #36 Eddie Murray RC (~$24). The set's marquee solo rookie — a Hall of Famer with his own card rather than a shared panel, which many collectors prefer over #707 at a fraction of the price.
8. #20 Pete Rose (~$15). The hit-king demand never left; his 1978 comes cheap relative to his 70s peers.
9. #360 Mike Schmidt (~$13). Arguably the most underpriced HOF card in the set right now.
10. #703 Rookie Pitchers — Jack Morris RC (~$13). The set's third Hall of Fame rookie, hiding on another four-player panel.

Browse every card with images and current prices on the 1978 Topps Baseball set page.

Why #707 is the set's grail

Multi-player rookie panels were how Topps handled prospects in the 70s, and #707 is the format's masterpiece: two first-ballot-caliber Hall of Famers (Molitor 3,319 hits; Trammell the 1984 World Series MVP) sharing cardboard. Because the panel format squeezes four small photos onto one card, centering and print snow hit hard — high-grade copies are genuinely scarce relative to demand. Check the PSA population report before paying a graded premium: pop at grade is what separates a $100 card from a four-figure one here.

Which 1978 Topps cards are worth grading?

Vintage grading math is friendlier than modern: raw-to-PSA-8 multiples on HOF cards routinely clear the grading fee. The candidates: #707, #36 Murray, #400 Ryan, and any top-10 card that presents sharp corners and 60/40-or-better centering. 1978 Topps is notorious for rough cuts and tilt, so be honest about centering before submitting — or scan the card free and get a condition read plus a grading recommendation in seconds.

Sharpen the submit-or-not call with our card condition guide — 1978's rough cuts make centering the deciding factor.

Frequently asked questions

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