I enjoy the various vintage sets with heads floating in space, players leaning on their stick in front of a brick wall, or the classic torso and up shot with a color background just as much as the next guy, but I really enjoy action shots.

Does anyone know when the first full action shot (not counting action shots with color backgrounds) appeared on an individual player card? Parkhurst's 51-52 Bill Barilko card comes to mind, but I'm sure some of you can unearth much earlier examples.

Also, would 1973-74 opc be the first time action shots were used for more than one or two cards in an entire set?

Thanks,

Nathanael

If your talking from a set being ONLY hockey I believe the 51 Parkhurst is correct. If you want to know the first action shot ever on ANY hockey card, I do believe there were some early pre C set era card sets, olympic cards with "action" shots of people skating with pucks, goalies, etc.. .ey pop on eBay fairly often.

Andrew

I believe the 45 Quaker photos have a buch of action shots. I also think some of the Beehive group 1s are action although most are posed.

Thanks for the insight. I guess the 52-53 parkhurst set is the first to use game action for the entire set, but the quality of the photos is pretty weak. Sort of impressionist photography.

I find it interesting that cards have come full circle in some ways. Most of the Crosby rookies are either head shots or colored background shots. But it's all about fabric and auto's these days- I'm sure there will be cards without photos soon.

There are. I think the ones that I am thinking of are called "letter marks", something like that.

Here's one (completed auction):

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Bobby-Orr-Game-Used-Letter-Marks-Autograph-38-50-SP_W0QQitemZ160190515696QQihZ006QQcategoryZ20885QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem