Nice! I haven't seen the photo this card was based upon. It explains why there is such a radioactive green field surrounding Williams.

It is also a relief to know Ted is not succumbing to either quicksand or quicksilver deposits.


Brian

Guess this is pertinent...

454. Mocknee Accent
The curious inclusion of the photographer’s leg in the picture on Dick Allen’s 1971 Topps card.

See also: Massachusetts Blobster Roll - the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams #34 “1947 - Ted Sets Runs-Scored Record” card.

See also: Say-Hey Krud - the oft-ridiculed fact that Topps surreptitiously snuck a sliding Willie Mays into Hank Aaron’s 1956 card.

The entire 1995 fleer set is a hideous abomination

1977 Reuschel Brothers
 

I don't have one handy, but the 1977 Reuschel Brothers card looks like two high school chemistry teachers won a day on the field before the game, presumably for Teacher of the Year awards.

If Memory Serves - Kent Tekulve would not even sign this card of him...

The 1971 Topps Dick Allen card always makes me laugh. So many problems.

Would post an image but I do not have a scanner....

I always make sure I have this scan handy for just these occasions.

Brian

Now I have this scan ready for future action as well...thanks!

Brian

Not Baseball, but an all-time stinker:

https://i0.wp.com/puckjunk.com/wp-co...ish_f_zoom.jpg


As for the 1973-1975 Topps photos, Topps had strict film-type requirements and they were not friendly to action shots nor were the lenses of the day.

Also, Topps requested photographer not use a flash, in fact, they preferred shadows under the cap and on the face?!?! I think they felt this gave the posed subjects a tougher look.

This one is such a bad photo, I need to get a copy.

Two more modern stinkers

How odd, I was just admiring this one yesterday! I think it's great! So bad its good, or just weirdly good?!

The '78T Minton, though; that thing is fugly!

Hockey is not my thing, but I assume he is in the penalty box, and perhaps he is looking up at the arena clock counting down the time until his penalty is over? If so, a brilliant idea, unfortunately in the end a failure because only a portion of his head is visible, and that unsightly blank glass reflection that fills the right side.

Brian

Football players should have flattops and sociopath stares.

Brian

My all time fave

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nothing against anyone who likes them; however, I’m not a fan of most strip cards.

2 that were totally fine pictures to use - until the Topps art department got their hands on them and removed essential parts of the picture for it to not look stupid.

Have you ever checked out the 1991 Ultimate hockey card set? If not the worst set ever produced, I'm not sure what was?
https://shoeboxlegends.blogspot.com/...-set-ever.html
https://www.comc.com/Cards/Hockey/1991_Ultimate

I don't really know Hockey, I have some 60's and 70's vintage and a few Score/Pro Set/Topps sets that I came into pretty much at a whim or randomly and had fun with. After looking these over and seeing they are worth the price of shipping, I just bought a set - like a third of the photos are contenders for this thread lol.

I know its modern but I always thought this was a dopey looking card

Attachment 616755

Well, the reactions to this post ought to be good. But whenever I see this card named as a favorite card on this board, I always cringe. I just can't stand this card or image for some reason. I think maybe I'm just so sick of so many people drooling over it that when I see it I get annoyed now. But to each their own as several cards already called out as terrible cards in this thread I actually like.



.

Japanese cards are legendary for some bad photography. These are from my collection.

1. 1988 Calbee Bill Gullickson. Calbee didn't have photos of all the players for their set for some reason and, being on a tight deadline, they solved this problem by literally pointing a camera at a TV during a game broadcast and taking pictures of the players that way. Its fun to spot which cards in the set fall into this category as they are easily identifiable by the blurry images like Gullickson's.

2. 1977 Calbee #17. This card features the Giants celebrating after winning the pennant. They cropped the photo so that most of the heads of the two players in the middle are cut completely off. Those two players? Sadaharu Oh (all time home run leader) and Isao Harimoto (all time hit leader). What did they crop their heads off to accomodate? More of the backs of the photographers on the bottom. This card is interesting because only on badly off-centred ones you can actually see Oh and Harimoto's faces.

3. 1975 NST Shigeo Nagashima. I just love how they cut the tip of his nose off in that unnecessarily zoomed in photo.

Can't remember if posted already: 1948 Elephant man Phil Rizzuto

I always thought this card of Jerry Garvin made him look like a bit of a wanker.*

* a Britishism for someone who "wanks off"

Attachment 618439

This photo is so bad that I love it and it's one of my favorite cards of all time.

This card of coach, and HOFer, Hoyt Wilhelm is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. 1979 TCMA:

Babe or Jonathan Winters
 

I think Jonathan Winters was a genius improv comedian.
He even played a “reverse baby” in Mork and Mindy.
But I didn’t realize his first card was a 35G

By the looks of Ruth's face (1935 Goudey 4 in 1), he might be constipated!

Some of these Z's have interesting poses.

A few favorites of mine… Paul Pierce furious with making it to the NBA, Dirk introduced to American fans as a zombie, and Mariano looking more like some teenage pipsqueak taking a break from busing tables at a tacky seafood restaurant for a quick snapshot than the future greatest closer of all time… 92 Bowman is IMO one of the worst sets ever made but sadly it’s slowly becoming iconic in large part due to this card.

Attachment 618961

Attachment 618962

Attachment 618963

This one always struck me as a pretty bad one.

Dude has no mouth or nose.

Leon - there’s probably a perfect image of Frank Chance under that button! Looks like a pre-cursor to the 1916-20 “Big Heads”.

I was just sorting my 1975 Topps cards and came across Len Randle and I immediately thought of this thread.

Sure, he wasn't a household name, but this is the BEST Topps could do for poor Len?

Attachment 619826

I always despised this strip set & the Cobb especially. Reminded me of the joker or Mr burns from the Simpson’s. Complete Yuck..

If you find any stories about Randle, you might have a change of perspective and consider it an awesomely fitting photo! Randle is assuredly one of baseball's eccentrics. 2 a.m. phone calls to fans and collectors are not out of the question. The last update was that he's currently hospitalized. Hope he's faring better.

This Tarzan Bread card of Munns, I used to own, looks like he might be a bit constipated.

Munns either liked that photo, or it's perhaps one of the few shots of him in Dodgers garb, because he sent me a signed copy many years ago. Guess he used to Xerox the image and send to collectors. Funny, I always thought it was more of a "GRRRR!" expression.

My impression is that Farrish is an unemployed goalie who is asking a passerby if he has $50 for a cup of coffee.

Len Randle makes me automatically think of this awesomeness:

https://youtu.be/AJPpTXzPxFs?si=i5Skt8aCXs-8K2rC

If we're talking about hockey, then I think it's time to quote a little Rush to describe Topps' WTF efforts with Keith Magnuson:

"Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye"


Attachment 619928

THAT Keith Magnuson CARD was the LAST card I needed to complete my 1972-73 Topps Set as an 11-year-old kid!

When I FINALLY got it, I thought that THIS was the COOLEST card EVER MADE!

Yeah, I've always loved the Magnuson card. Not sure why this type of photo was uesd for it, but reminds me of album photos for Neil Young's Harvest and Ragged Glory.

Len looks like he just took a pitched ball in the nuts.

A top contender…

I've seen that clip a hundred times but didn't put it together that was the same guy on my 1975 Topps card.

Thanks to your post (and the post from BillyCox up above) I spent some time Googling Len Randle. Quite a character.

Here's another Len Randle highlight (blowing a ball foul) that I've seen a million times that I didn't associate with that Topps card until now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLroDoPFdWY

There was something reeeaaaallly interesting going on up there.

You can see how little Topps cared in the 70's with this one:

The ole uni-brow. Nice.

.

Overall the 1923 WG7 Walter Mails Game cards have lower quality photo images of the players. I like the look of my full sized type card of Heinie Groh (I also have a few others that are cut down to just the photo), but the images and wildly inconsistent graphic design on a quite a few of the 56 cards are humorous, horrible and head-scratching (which of course is the coveted 3 'H' designation), as seen in the sampling below.

Brian (non-Groh images are from the Old Cardboard website)

Hey Brianp-beyou, the WG7 images of Sam Rice & WaJo are gorgeous! :D