We bought 2-3 baggies of matches when we were in Las Vegas a few months ago. I think there were 4-5 books in each baggie, and from 1-3 books in each baggie that I knew we didn't have. There were also a couple of duplicates in the baggies. We try to collect full books, but you aren't supposed to carry that many on the plane. So if the duplicate was in my hands, I stripped (shucked/removed the matches from) the duplicate. If I thought we had one at home, I didn't strip it...just "hid" it in the luggage and crossed my fingers.

All of our matches made it home with us (yaaaay! ), and I found more variations than duplicates. I love a happy ending

Sometimes the most noticeable difference is the color of the match heads