Glamour Shots

Back when I had begun buying cards again three years ago, I was immediately searching for cheap vintage. And vintage had become much cheaper than I remember it being in the 90's, which is odd. But there was still one type of vintage I never was able to bring myself to purchase... that of the Glamour Shot.

What I mean by Glamour Shot, is the cards with photos that really don't portray the fact that you're looking at a baseball player. It's usually a head-and-shoulders shot so that the jersey lettering couldn't be seen, player looking to one side, and no cap. It's just a picture of some dude. Sure, the card would say 'Reds' and 'OF' on it somewhere, but it just felt odd buying some dude's headshot. It gave me no joy. This was before I became a completist, of course.

Let's check out most of the vintage Topps Reds Glamour Shots. I even did the liberty of omitting cards with any indication at all that sports are involved, for instance 1960 and 1963 Topps with the inset. My point is, if you don't speak English, you wouldn't know the following cards have anything to do with sports.

1969 was the biggest offender, Reds-wise. Check out those flat-tops, baby.

Here we see the cultural transition from the pompadour to the flat-top. At least I think that's a pompadour on Mr. Powers up there, and lesser so on Mr. Hillman. I could be wrong. I could also wager that a precious few of you would even know enough about it to correct me.

I'm starting to get kinda creeped out seeing this many, this close.

Sweet heavens, Topps. I understand this helps for traded players, but let's see some effort.

Alright. It pretty much stopped after the '71 set, but I did find a lone '74.

Lookin' fabulous, boys.

Go Reds.