There was a few recent threads about this topic. Here is a link to one that comes to mind. https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/how-much-is-that-knight-in-the-window. See my post #8.
HoS and OS are retailers. They pay someone else to manufacture sets for them and then they resell it for profit. CB is a direct manufacturer who I believe has always sold direct. SC and CE are manufacturers who produced sets for HoS, OS, and other resellers. SC and CE recently started to sell direct as well.
Generally the pricing from resellers are more expensive than direct manufacturers as there are more costs involved in resale. There are lots of import/export fees, taxes, and other costs that direct manufacturers do not need to pay. Manufacturers who sell direct are usually less expensive. However, there are still variables that impact costs when comparing between resellers and comparing between manufacturers. I think @Kimk10 complained about how HoS is significantly more expensive than other US resellers of the same product. I also complained about how the SC 3.75" 1849 set is only about $210 USD while a similar iteration from CB is $300 USD after a discount of 20%. Both SC and CB are in India and both manufacture the sets themselves. Why is CB more than the other from SC? I have no idea.
Thanks that's helpful. I've always wondered if the same style pieces that cost more from other retailers were carved by different, more skilled artisans but it seems that's not the case - they're the same pieces. The other threads seem to dance around the issue and not answer it directly. Everyone seems to argue HOS & OS have better quality - which may be the case with their $1k sets, but not so with others like the one's I linked in my original post. Someone please let me know if this is incorrect, I don't have a problem paying a couple hundred more for the same set if the quality is superior.
I know that all these pieces come out of India and from only a few different manufacturers, but are the same style sets from different resellers actually different?
For example, look at the below sets from HOS and Royal Chess Mall - What justifies the higher price from a reseller like HOS? Do they get the same style pieces from more experienced carvers, thus better? Do they just have higher quality control with the pieces they sell? Are they from different manufacturers but just the same style?
Royal chess mall set
HOS set
It seems there are the same chess sets from different retailers like cb, royal chess mall, ChessNcrafts, Staunton castle, hos, chess empire, etc. for all different prices - what makes the more expensive sets different?