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warshawlawI am reluctant to buy them, however, because of the artificial trade barrier between the US and Cuba. When Castro dies it is quite likely that we will see normalized relations between the countries. Until then, we have no way of obtaining a realistic assessment of the rarity of the Cuban issues. The "attic effect" of a US-Cuba normalization could be dramatic.
As for cards of retired players, I distinguish between cards of players who were totally out of the sport at the time of issue (such as the Sport King Cobb or 1940 Jackson) and cards of those who were involved in baseball in a non-playing capacity at the time of issue (such as the T206 Hugh Duffy). The former are all time great issues, the latter are regular issue cards.
Also, you can make a valid distinction between cards of active players who became HOFers for managing or executive work and guys who went into the HOF for playing but also managed. If I was putting together a HOF collection, I would probably prefer a John McGraw card as a manager (A T206, say) over a playing era card of him. Ditto for Jennings, Mack, Lasorda and some others I can't think of right now. If Gil Hodges makes it, I don't know what to do. . .