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Specs
Year: 1976
Title: Motorola Old Timers
Size: 2 1/2″ by 3 1/2″
Number in Set: 11
Overview
Motorola released this 11-card baseball set at their annual convention of electronics dealers as a promotion. Cards were issued individually in a wrapper with a piece of bubble gum.
Motorola printed the cards on super-thin parchment-like card ‘stock.’ They are super flimsy, see-through, and sensitive to de-coloring over time. I’ve read that a second printing was made that used even thinner stock than the first. I’ve also read that someone printed the cards on regular baseball card cardboard at some point.
The player photos are within an oval in the center of the card, within a white frame. The player’s name appears within that white frame above the image, and basic player details (and a career highlight) appear below the picture. Below that white frame is another frame with a Motorola sales message. The cards have rust-colored borders.
The numbered card’s backs are all different and feature information about Motorola products.
Example
This complete set of PSA 10 encapsulated cards is for sale on eBay for $5k as of July 2022.
Key Cards
Babe Ruth is the set’s key card. But Wagner is the rarest in Gem Mint condition. PSA has graded a total of 326 cards from this set.
Checklist
1 Honus Wagner
2 Nap Lajoie
3 Ty Cobb
4 William Wambsganss
5 Three Finger Brown
6 Ray Schalk
7 Frank Frisch
8 Pud Galvin
9 Babe Ruth
10 Grover Cleveland Alexander
11 Frank L. Chance