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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Sorry about the delay in responding. I've been busy preparing for my auction next week and didn't check the board for a few days. It figures that I would miss a post about the issue that is my #1 priority as far as sets I am trying to complete. Has there ever been a thread about this issue before?

Great eye for detail, Frank! I had only noticed that one by studying both examples next to each other. I've been geeking out on this set for years now and have had multiple examples of some cards, which is tougher than you might think when you consider it's an issue where the MOST common cards in the set have only 4 or 5 examples known and the population of most cards is 2 or 3 of each. Looking at several examples of the same card when they are physically there in front of you is the best way to pick out the variations. This set is loaded with little "variations" like the one you mentioned. I consider them closer to printing errors than variations, though. There are other printing errors that appear on the front of different cards, but most appear on the backs. Here are a few ways to spell "Tomas Gutierrez" other than the correct way:

First we have "Tomas Gntierrez" followed by "Tomes Gutierrez" and "Tomas Gutierraz."

There are many others that appear within the actual text on the back, which is strange because the text on the back should be identical on every card. It's interesting because they are all such minor ones: a missing period here, an incorrect letter there, etc. I've listed a few of the bigger "variations" (that appear on more than one card) on my website. There are too many card-specific printing errors to list.

Personally, I find that kind of stuff incredibly interesting, but truly thought I was the only one on the planet.

I can't tell if Paul's post was in jest or not, but (thankfully) I don't have to add another card to the list of ones I need to complete the set. If I considered this a true "variation" such as a different image on the card or different text on the back (not just spelling) I would need it. At one point I owned both examples at the same time and sold one because it was a duplicate, in spite of the print error. I would need to double-check, but I think those are the only two examples I've seen of that particular card.

As it stands, I am 9 cards away from completing what I consider to be the greatest of all Cuban baseball card sets. I'm 6 cards away from having every known card. Fortunately, all but Marsans are commons:

27 Papo Gonzalez
30 Armando Marsans
34 Joseito Rodriguez
35 Cheo Ramos
66 Abreu
79 Habana bandera

The other three (57, 58, 84) are ones where a single example has never surfaced. It's pretty frustrating getting so close to completing such a difficult set, knowing that it might literally be impossible to complete it.

I would be VERY interested to hear if there are others who are trying to build this set.

-Ryan