A Bevy of BCE Stage 1 Eastern & Western style Blitz sets from Ifekali and Noj.

I'm not one to ever be a critic of anyone giving a good product and service,even if I question they're pricing...First off,I have no clue as to their operating costs and their efforts to offer a quality product.

Secondly,they may simply be too nice to criticize.

Case in point,Official Staunton.

Two years ago I placed an order for a nice set from these guys.I placed it on Christmas day....Next,I get an email saying....

"Since you placed an order on Christmas day,you may have a set that is more than double the price at no additional cost.Just let us know."

Don't ever expect to see me say anything negative about those guys!

I agree completely.

Carl with his Official Staunton Company is excellent.  He offers the high quality products at a very competitive price and with excellent service.  I have bought equipment from him and have never been disappointed. 
After coming here for over 5 1/2 years I have seen complaints of quality and service.  The companies with the best record are:

1. Noj.  There are literally no complaints from people that own one of their sets.

2. Official Staunton.  I think that I have only read one complaint in all these years and that was a quality issue that Carl quickly fixed with quick service.

3. The Chess House. Raphael is the owner and his record is statistically as good as Carl’s.  Carl sells more higher end Chess sets.  Raphael produces excellent boards and such.  The first three here are pretty spotless in reputation.

4. The House of Staunton comes next.  HoS has the highest number of sets and boards for sale than any other company.  And they also have the widest price range.  There have been complaints of both quality and service.  However, these complaints have been quite low in percentage of what they sell.  And their service has been quite good in recent years.

5. Chess Bazaar has transitioned in the last few years to be one of the better companies.  From the end of 2014 until around 2018 or so, there were a good number of quality complaints and there were a number of poor service issues.  But now they have much better quality as we haven’t seen complaints for quite awhile.  And people have only reported really good service from them.  Right now, Chess Bazaar is just as reliable of a seller as any of the above.

Royal Chess Mall, The House of Chess, Staunton Castle and a number of others have recently shown good results.

In reflection I have to say this is a very good time to be a Chess set consumer.  We haven’t seen many complaints or problems.  A number of years ago, one poster said that buying a set from one company was a real gamble if the set would have problems or not.  This is no longer the case for pretty much all the companies.

I don't have the buying experience like you guys do, so I don't know what it was like before. For me, I've only been buying since last year and I almost always have issues with what was sent to me. It doesn't matter if the set is $100 or if it is $600. There is always something. 

I've purchased 5 sets from HoS. My first one which was the 2.875 Zagreb. It was the only one that did not have issues. Of course I did not inspect that set like I do with the more recent sets. The other 4 all had issues with various pieces. The Players had a king that was smaller than advertised. I didn't realize until many months later. The Collectors in blood rosewood, Fischer Spassky Commemorative in ebony, and the most recent 3.25 Grandmaster series in golden rosewood all had multiple pieces with dings, marks and other issues. I always thought "why would you send me this?" Their customer service department was always great though. They replaced the damaged pieces without much fuss and in a timely manner.

On the other hand, I recently bought the 3.5" Morphy set in antiqued boxwood from Staunton Castle.  It arrived in 5-6 days from overseas... faster than what I get from HoS. When it arrived, all but 3 pieces were literally perfect. The 3 that were not perfect were close to it. There was nothing that required replacement. I was very impressed. The only problem was they sent me the distressed version instead of the antiqued version. I personally do not like distressed sets, so this was a bummer. Mandeep apologized and we are discussing how to solve this issue now. As stated, there always seems to be an issue.

Well, at least the good thing is that both places worked to fix the situation.

@Eyechess Yes that is true for HoS so far. Mandeep has not resolved the issue yet but hopefully soon.

I have had numerous problems in the past(not NOJ or O.S. or Royal Chess Mall) and I posted some really critical threads about the particular company(I won't go into it,or name them at this point).

However after quite a bit of aggravation they "all" got resolved to my satisfaction.....but....

I am not in any rush,these days,to buy too many new sets.....I already have 21,but to be honest,after the hassles of the past,the anticipation of "what might be wrong" is an irritant to me and I really dislike the scrutinizing process of checking out every bit of minutia for every piece.

I think you folks know the anxiety of the inspection process.

I'll slowly acquire a new set,here and there,but I'm happy where I am.....For the time being I guess.

@Magictwanger I know exactly what you mean. The thought of having to go through an exchange process for damaged pieces with any company makes me question if I really really want it bad enough. The thought of having to exchange pieces with a company like Staunton Castle who is overseas makes my stomach churn. I wasn't going to buy from SC but I love the Morphy knight too much. I could not say no despite Staunton Castle being overseas.

It's sort of like this for me being a chess player-enthusiast-collector,

although I've tried to find the anecdote/cure for the thirst it seems to be a never-ending desire to own something of beauty and meticulously artistic value when it pertains to chess equipment, within reasonable monetary expenditures of course. 

BTW @ MCH818- I had received my Dubrovnik Series 1950 Vintage Reproduction 3.75" Antiqued Chess set from SC last year and it was shipped from Ontario Canada. FYI.

I also have stopped having the urge to buy more sets.  I have been lucky in that the sets I bought from overseas had no problems.  Of course the majority of these sets came from Official Staunton and Noj.  Carl is really good about not sending defects in the first shipment.  And of course Gregor always sends the best.

But I have never received problems from Chess Bazaar, House of Chess or Royal Chess Mall, knock on wood (all puns intended).

"Guess who's coming to Dinner?"...so to speak. Remember how the pieces for the Regium chess set scam looked like? Well here is that same set, sort of, with slightly different aesthetics to the King's cross finial which has less material to it than the Regium King's of the Chess Empire's The Ulbrich Series 3.75” chess set pieces. I have obtained both of these sets which resemble the Stage 1 Western Styled Blitz BCE set edition from Noj but they don't sell the Ivory and Red lacquered version. I have also obtained the Sheesham and Boxwood version. I really like the way the knights look on this set. There is an ebonized version as well. If you wish to purchase do so quickly because they will sell out very fast in my estimation. See for yourself if this would be your cup of "tea". I love this style of Modern era Staunton style pieces. 

Here first is the Regium set to compare. Notice the King finials which will appear slightly different from the Chess Empire's Ulbrich set. The rest of the pieces seem spot-on identical to each other. 

The Ulbrich set in White and Red lacquered finishes and the Sheesham and Boxwood version of the Ulbrich. Dinner will be served soon in my household for sure...

The Knights have a very cool looking profile,.almost "Chavet" likeness without the "tetes fines". IMHO.

@QtoQLevel3 Once bitten twice shy is exactly correct. Man! I wish mine was shipped from Canada. I checked where the 3.5" Morphy would be shipped from before I ordered it and it was overseas. I was still hoping though. I was disappointed when I received the tracking number and it showed where it was coming from. It arrived in 5-6 days so I can't really complain about that.

The thread about Regium was way too long for me to read. I don't think I ever saw the pieces before now. It does look very similar to the BCE stage 1 set except of course for the knights. These knights are just as cool as the BCE stage 1 knights. How's the quality of the Chess Empire compared to Noj?

@Eyechess I missed out on the opportunity to buy from OS. They had some really nice sets. One thing I noticed about them was that they don't keep running the same sets like HoS does. Many sets that I was interested in purchasing were no longer available. I believe one was the Leuchars with the king-side stamp that CGrau reviewed. There was a mention about the 3.5" Morphy set I saw recently. I believe there was one or two more. I would have loved to purchase a set from them.

Well, I don’t want to anger you but I actually did buy that Leuchars set and the 3.5” Murphy set in both Sheesham and Ebonized.  And they are nice.

Maybe we can convince Carl to start selling on this side of the pond again.

I’ve never purchased anything from the Chess Empire until today but from what I had seen about them on the YouTube channel they seem to be a top flight outfit and I will definitely be coming back here for more reviews on this new purchase. The rooks are a bit slimmer and the pieces have that beveled base which gives them the illusion of floating on the chessboard. The board from Brad didn’t satisfy what I needed so I will wait for mtm wood.com to give me a reply on that Purpleheart and movingui wood platform board we spoke about to see if a deal could be brokered  for it.  

For what it’s worth, awhile back Shelby contacted me as one of his customers wanted to buy some extremely high end sets for a charity auction.  In talking, Shelby mentioned Chess Empire as one company he already knew of that would carry such nice product.  He was asking me if I knew of any others.

So Chess Empire has nice stuff.

@Eyechess Yes that makes me angry! J/K! Haha! Its more like man I wish I could have it too. 

That would be a good idea. I certainly would buy something from OS if he ever started selling on this side of the pond.

@QtoQlevel3 I have been waiting their Lardy set. It is a pretty good 70s version in my opinion. I just really like that set but then the question do I want it bad enough to order overseas comes to mind. Up to this point, I do not want it bad enough yet. As for MTM, those are SUPER nice! Hopefully you can work out a deal.

I had asked Carl the same thing, when will he renew his selling to stateside customers and I'm awaiting his reply through email messaging. I had asked him if he will ever bring back this classic dark ochre board that Chuck Grau has on display in his home within his "chess cave" with the 1940 Soviet Championship club set from Chessbazaar, a real eye-catching beauty!

That is very nice! The board colors are definitely a good contrast to the black and white pieces. The knights in that set are very beautiful.

Ha! Looks like some folks are getting ready to open the wallets again.

Btw,I have that 1940 Soviet Set....It is one of the most perfect sets that C.B. sent me,which was a surprise to me at the time.

Great news! I emailed OS about their 3.5 Cooke Edition in boxwood ebony and it will be available in 6 weeks. They also confirmed they already resumed shipping to the US due to high demand. So I guess I will be buying a set from them in 6 weeks.