1982 Donruss M*A*S*H Non-Sport Forum

I have heard that some of the cards will have a back that will not match the set. What  I mean is that two cards that are the same will have different backs is this true?

Yes. They're puzzle-back cards. The backs complete an 11 x 11 card puzzle, so a complete puzzle consists of 121 different card backs, but there are only 66 different card fronts.  According to one website, each of the 66 cards has two different backs.

That is true I have a complete set of the Fronts but a nightmare of puzzle backs. Not even sure which variations I have. When I got the set that was one of the first things I noticed and it royally ticked me off. Been ages since I've even looked at them to try to figure out which variants I have (I think some of my cards have duplicate backs of the puzzle but not a complete puzzle). One the online sources I use a lot for Non-Sport Card sets is Jeff Allender's House of Cards. It has a breakdown for the puzzle backs: http://nslists.com/mash.htm

thanks both of you. that is what i was afraid of.

Revisiting this issue.

When I purchased a "full" set back years ago either from Ebay or from Larrch Fritsch Cards pre-Ebay, I was disappointed when I noticed I could not complete the back puzzle(s) do to missing pieces and/or duplicate pieces.

Also when I added my "haves" to the checklist here many of my puzzle backs did not match the ones scanned.

Today (15 Feb 2024) I decieded to look on COMC to attempt to add some of the back puzzle variants. I noticed that not only were there two back variants but for some cards there might be 3 puzzle back variants. I don't know if that is accurate, maybe COMC has scanning issues from time to time? I know sometimes when I'm surfing the site and click the "turn over" button some of the copies will not turn over.

At any rate the database needs to be updated to relfect that there are at the very least 2 puzzle back variants per card. Eventually I could help add some of the back scans for variants. 

It has been very tempting at times to look for a box or two or a very large lot of these cards to hunt down the back puzzle variants I need to satisfy the hunger of the completest collector in me. One of those rare times I would make an effort to build a master set of a particular set.