I actually prefer the Marshall pieces to those. I want to find an old club set like I showed a picture of on the first page.

It's all about cost.  Those old durable sets were great when oil - the major determining factor in the price of plastic - was under $20 barrel.  As the price went up, they sought out better deals.

But those from the '70s and '80s were very reliable sets, it was almost impossible to chip or break them.

Quite a disappointment =/ I'd pay a pretty penny for one of those old club sets. Do you know if they're even still made at all anymore?

Go to wholesalechess.com and get their Premier Tournament Set, the pieces are quadruple+ weighted, the pieces weigh almost 4 pounds:

http://www.wholesalechess.com/chess/premier_tournament_chess_set_combo_to_natural_and_black

My favorite was the cavalier deluxe, triple weighted with a much nicer Knight than anything pictured here. The ones called cavalier deluxe that I found online are not identical to the set I'm thinking of, which USCF hasn't sold in ages.

If you know how to use search engines you'll probably find what you want, but maybe not at a good price.

http://www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html

so what are the rules for pieces in the uscf do they have to be sanctioned by uscf

I recently bought a set of triple-weighted plastic pieces from the USCF. The white pieces are a little too white--I prefer the softer off-white color of the sets they used to sell--but the pieces are heavy, fairly attractive, and come with two extra queens. They're not bad at all. 

I still prefer the older sets, but the new ones are quite serviceable.

I just found one with the right queen

http://www.wholesalechess.com/chess/quality_club_chess_pieces

However, the bishop still doesn't look right.

Still haven't been able to find an exact replica, though. The "Quality Club" pieces from Wholesale chess has the right queen, but the bishop still isn't quite right.

 

I know about these differences. We still have about 140 sets left from the wingsing plastic factory which made the old design. I would buy them thousands at a time. Wholesale chess sells the mimic version. Looks ok but not durable. The original version is available at least right now as product code e104 on ChessHouse . I sure wish wingsing didn't go out of business.

I'm not sure where I got my set back in the late 60's, but I like the old Drueke #35 set.  The plastic is more of a matt finish, not the cheap shiny plastic that I'm seeing today in pictures.  They are triple weighted which I think is just right (quad weighted is just too heavy to feel "right" to me), and the original pieces had nice felt bottoms, not the cheap felt paper of so many sets today.  I just finished cleaning the set up, replacing one lost weight, and trying to find a suitable glue for new felt bottoms.  They are like new except for one chip on the black queen crown. 

And, no, sorry, not for sale.

Here's an article that centers on this original USCF design plastic chess set. They are still available.

I did not want to use my Dreuke #35 set for general tournament play for fear of breakage or loss.  In talking with the Chess House, I asked them for a comparable set and they said their Paladin set was nearly identical to the #35.  Their Paladin set is nice but not quite up to Drueke #35 standards.  The Paladin plastic is a bit shinier, and the molding seams are not as well polished.  Otherwise they are visually identical except for the Paladin knights which have a slightly flatter head.  Both sets are triple weighted, nearly equally (within a gram or so), except for the pawns which are several grams heavier in the Paladin set.  I "think" I bought my #35 set from the USCF around 1969 or so.

I can understand nostalgia.. I have this exact set and played with it when I was a kid.. but they are none the less very ugly.

I never understood ... the plastic sets are just done by machine mold.. why not create a beautiful set like these with plastic

Infinitely more aesthetic!

The wood is very nice, but I do not like the flat-sided knights which seem at odds with the rest of the set design.  I understand that knights must be hand-carved since they are not easily "turned" on a lathe as the remainder of the set.  But this knight just looks like something you'd find in a child's first set.  And when you start looking for wood sets with nice knights, you're looking at some big money.  Just personal preference, of course.

This is the second time I've seen someone online praise the appearance of those "DGT Timeless" pieces. I don't get it. Those are crude, vaguely-Staunton pieces with a knight which I guess represents a horse, but could just as easily represent a dog of indeterminate breed. They sell for $225 because they are "high-tech", but take out the electronics and that is a $25 set. Look at the pawn ... it barely even has a column. The bishop comes up rather short in the column section too, as do the king and queen for that matter. The "Club Special" pieces, which are based on the old French Lardy wooden pieces, look much better in my opinion.

Compare those DGT pieces to a real Staunton set (early Jaques of London):

The difference in the level of aesthestics is like night and day (as is the difference in the amount of time and skill involved in making them), and there are already various plastic sets available based on real Staunton designs.

With regard to the OP's question, you might find what you're looking for inside a "Pressman Family Classics Tournament Chess" set. There are two NIB ones available here - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pressman-Family-Classics-Tournament-Chess-3238-NIB-/251194035394?pt=Games_US&hash=item3a7c54ccc2

I bought a such a chess set at Wal-Mart in the early '90s (the box is identical to the ones in that eBay auction), and the pieces look like the ones you described. The white pieces are an ivory color and the black pieces are jet black. The pieces are matte, not shiny. They are not weighted, but rather, they are completely solid (not even a hollow section in the base). They come with felt paper pads that you stick on yourself (I never bothered to stick them on). It also comes with a folding board with woodgrain colored 2-1/16" squares. Here's a picture of mine: