The 1977 Burger King Piniella is indeed rare. Read the whole story here:
https://gothamist.com/miscellaneous/the-curious-case-of-the-23rd-card-in-a-series-of-22
Holy crap I had no idea. Never heard this story. The only thing the article doesn’t say is why they’re considered rare (fewer produced I assume), and what one is worth today. But i’m sure I’m not sitting on a treasure, as all my childhood cards have at least some corner wear from lots of handling.
Thanks for the scoop. Just 45 years to get to the truth about the infamous Piniella card. Not that it’s been eating away at me to find out though; I just came around to the belief that it was only a false rumor fueled by overzealous kids.
Speaking of rumors, funny little story that just popped into my head - a kid Eddie I knew in grade school was kind of a pathological liar - he liked to make up stories that would mesmerize the other kids and make him feel important. I must have brought up the topic of Wacky Packages a few times in school around other kids, and Eddie must have caught wind of it. He comes up one day and tells me that he either had, or found, some sort of treasure trove of Wackys. But then he made his fatal mistake - he said one of them was ‘Snot Tissue’. I didn’t remember many 8th titles, but I did remember Shot Tissue. So because of that one slip-up, I knew he was full of crap. Funnily enough, what was once a fugazy title is now a real one, with the creation of Snot Tissue in one of the monthly sets.