original sears race outer box and book-style box

[CincYnoTi]

i just received a boxed set of sears race and it's combination of boxes seems odd. i say this because it seems the book-style inner box which should be the earliest version of this box is paired with an outer box which is a later style (fyi, this came from a lot of about 20 sears games from the original owner and i don't have any reason to think these boxes were mix and matched). the book-style box has the typical text on the back of all the original sears book-style boxes:

 

sold by

SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO. Chicago, IL 60684 U.S.A.

and

SIMPSON-SEARS LIMITED, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

 

this is the same as the box on AtariAge:

http://www.atariage.com/box_page.html?Soft...7&BoxStyleID=13

 

also, notice on the front that the "s" in "players" and "games" is the slanted s font. also, on the side of the box is the serial number 6-99821.

 

the larger outer box which holds the driving controllers and the inner box does NOT have the slanted s font on players and games. also, the back of the box does not have the "sold by ... Canada" lines, but instead has the small 90-day warranty box which shows up in the later style sears boxes:

http://www.atariage.com/box_page.html?Soft...0&BoxStyleID=13

 

so what, right? well, i happen to have another copy of sears race. the inner box matches the later style with straight-s font, and 90-day warranty box on back. oddly enough, it has serial number 6-99809 on the side. to add to the confusion, this box came with an outer box which has the slanted-s font plus the "sold by ... Canada" text on the back. this outer box also has "RACE" in orange rather rhan red, has a big hang tag, and is side opening rather than top opening.

 

if i found all of these lieing separated and wanted to match them up like a puzzle, i would put the book-style, slanted-s, sold by...canada versions together and the straight-s font/90-day warranty boxes together. but that's not how i received them from different sellers on ebay.

 

does anyone have a complete boxed set of Sears Race of the 99821 variety that they bought long ago? what combination of boxes did it come with. what combination of boxes have other collectors found matched together?

[Philflound]

The only thing I can think of is that they had left over early inner boxes, so they used those with the newer outer boxes.

 

Phil