chess vendors to sell single armies - thought

Rather than selling a set of two-army 32 pieces (or 34, if two queens per army), what of the idea of selling armies separately, just 16 (17) pieces? As a future chess vendor, this is what I've been considering, and this is how I figure.

It might be easier for customers to decide which two woods they wood like. (Customers don't always want Boxwood; they may want Rosewood and Padauk or Padauk and Ebony. Some may want to combine Yellowheart with Padau or Rosewood with Steamed Pearwood. etc.) If two woods are already selected for them in a set, they would move onto the next item to 'see if they like it'. Customers have always done this, granted, but hey. Why not let them have the power of options? Their being given it might more likely keep them as customers.

And then, if people were playing a certain 3-player chess variant, a default 2-armies set wouldn't satisfy their purchase. I ran into this exact problem with House of Staunton 8 years ago when they told me that they "would have to break sets appart if [I] wanted three armies, and [they] wouldn't do that." Frustrated, I ended up not going through with the purchase I would have otherwise made. Surely, this problem would have been very easily solved if they sold their sets as single armies?

Do you thin this is a good chess business strategy? Let's discuss.

For me personally, being able to get half sets would be nice... but it is not at the top of my wishlist.

What I personally want is a better selection of smaller sets, which nobody seems to want to provide.  Have you ever tried to buy a 3" King version of a Russian set (RUSSIAN, not Yugoslavian or "Zagreb")?   It's just not available.  Full sized 4"+ King sets are nice, but sometimes for portability or convenience I Iike grabbing a small "analysis" sized set and would like to have some nice set options to go wth it!

I'm not familiar with these sets, and I suppose I won't really notice what significant difference is between them. However, if you were to find your dream set (Which is the Russian 3" King) in a 2-wood combination that you may not like, would you not like to have a wider range of options of two colors that you can combine yourself?

Absolutely!  That would be nice.

I recently purchased a 3" version of the "Empire" style pieces, and the ONLY option was Sheesham and Boxwood.  I wanted them in black (Ebony or Ebonized) but nobody sold them in anything but Sheesham.

There are plastic sets that are sold in half sets. Usually those sets with lots of different colors, pick the two you like.

When I purchased my last tournament set, they came packed in two separate boxes. I noticed that they sell them in a couple of different color choices, so I suspect they do the same thing, just package them in half sets and then put them together according to what the customer has ordered.

I would think that many of the wood sets I see are the same way. When I see a set available in color combinations, I would think they make them in half sets and then pair them together to make the full sets. You can just order the woods you want and they ship the set in those woods.

So while nobody might yet sell in half sets, I think they do manufacturer and package them that way in many cases. It's just a next step to do what you suggest. 

I suspect it hasn't become the standard yet because the vast majority of people want full sets.

Recklass, your positive testimony confirms why I think this strategy for sale is such a good idea.

I think the packaging is just a shipping preference; I bought from house of staunton, and they had 1 package. They're still shipping you a full set of two armies, because that is what 1 purchase order of a set is.

Regarding wanting a full set: you still have that option with purchasing two armies separately. It will come out to be the price it should be .(Half a set is roughly half a price; if two of these come out to be more than what the other would be, the vendor would offer some form of discount.). What difference does it make? ^-^

Bawker,

Not sure if this fits the bill. It's a 3.625" Russian Knight set from the Chess House, but because of its narrow 1.38" king diameter, it's a near perfect fit on a 1.75" board.

Here's a full dimensional table.

Good to see my good ole Lou again. Haven't talked in so long.

^-^

*hugs*

loubalch,

Thanks for the info, but no... I'm looking for a Soviet style set, with opposite colored king and queen finials, but the same colored bishop finials.  Like this:

Yeah, a lot of it probably has to do with inventory. For plastic sets, it probably isn't too big of a deal. All the sets in the same style will look alike, since they were made with the same molds,  and can be swapped easily enough and you only would need to keep sufficient stock of the various colors.

For wood sets, I imagine the variation is a lot higher. It is probably easier to make them as matching sets than trying to get different sets to match more fully across the different batches and wood types. Though, I don't know that for a fact, since I've never really shopped around for wood sets. Maybe there really isn't that much variance.

I don't think there is that much variation in the Woods. For the most part, light colored pieces are Boxwood. The darks range from Rosewood to Ebony and various others. So if the pieces are all the same shape-wise, then having a bunch of Boxwood pieces and various dark woods might be a good way to go. 

OTOH, for really high end sets, the woods get a lot more exotic. But then if you can afford those, you can pretty much get whatever you want and sell off the stuff that you don't like.

Part of the reason this thread came into existence is the fact that I'm not using Boxwood as an option in my company. unlike House of Staunton and The Chess Store, I absolutely 100% REFUSE to use Boxwood on my luxury designs. (It's the equivalent of using Times New Roman on serious professional resumes: the font is so goddamn common and ubiquitous, when hiring managers see it, it's laughably hard to take the applicant seriously. There're actually online critiques on this very subject.)

My company's using an array of more valuable exotic light-color woods, like European Hornbeam (which is actually cream-White, not blandly dull yellow like Boxwood), Maple and possibly Tamarind. And then, for yellow woods that are actually pronouncedly yellow, my company is offering yellowheart; Pearwood and Macacauba (alias Orange Agate) for Orange woods of different coloration to Padauk. See? There is a whole range of options for white Army.

My international company is one of the few in its region to use this huge array of exotic woods; most just stick to the common Rosewood, Sheesham, Boxwood, Ebony, Padauk and "Bud Rosewood", all of which my company will be using in addition to the other listed ^^ exotic woods.

As you can probably understand how I came about my conclusion, it seems more productive for a customer to choose single armies of their choice for their purchase. See how that works?

As for slight mis-variations, that's always going to be the downside of crafting wooden chess pieces: pieces will never be 100% identical, because they aren't molded like plastic; no matter how symmetrical the set, with ever so much a squint of an eye, one can point out the microscopic difference between Bishops, Queens, Rooks, nights and pawns of the same size and design.

However, my company has Boxwood master samples to create pieces from. Any variation shouldn't wander too far off from these masters; it will ensure that the pieces do not  change over time, because they have the one master to always refer back to.

Well, that sounds great. Just two questions, what is your International companies website, I'd like to take a look at chess pieces that are done right. And how expensive are these exotic pieces going to be? I see these woods used elsewhere as well, but usually priced for collectors only. I'm in the market for sets that will stand up to the wear and tear of regular play, that can be replaced at a reasonable price.

My company isn't yet established. It's in the making right now.

If you like, I can show you in PM sample pieces of my design in picture when they are crafted. Otherwise, if you would like to see them in their original 3d model form, I can do that too.

Just let me know. ^-^

I haven't discussed single army pricing with my partner yet, but we have decided on a range of $450-$650 on two-army sets consisting of European Hornbeam and East Indian Rosewood; or European Hornbeam and Padauk. Sets of Padauk and Genuine Ebony will probably be in the $500-$850 range. Columbian Verawood (Olive-Green color) and East Indian Rosewood would be in about that same range.

Single Euro. Hornbeam armies would generally be 1/3 or 1/4 the price of the 2-army set that they come from.

As far as wear and tear, the density of all these wood species have a janka hardness of 1500+ lbf, which means they are exceptionally hard: you cannot break them just by dropping them many times from your average-height table. Also, these pieces cannot dent each other (unless you deliberately severely slam them into one another for long periods of time; and, from my 16+ years of knowledge on chess play, people don't actually do this! *chuckles*).

I assume then that this sentence was actually meant to say "My international company will be one of..."

Sure, send me sample renderings, I'd like to see what you are cooking up.

I just have one question for this startup company...

You listed "Padouk" and "Bud Rosewood" as two of the woods you plan on using.

In reality, aren't they the same wood?

Perhaps I'm not familiar with all umbrella usage of the trademark name, "Bud rosewood", but what I do know is that it's a name used for a variations of Rosewood trunks and roots; these portion of rosewood woods contain a highter than average grain pattern, some outrageously bizarre, and usually sell at higher prices.

Padauk is generally African Padauk (alias African Coralwood), but other closely species as Andaman and Narra may also  be interchangeably used, though infrequently.

BattleChessGN18,

I see.

Actually, I don't... and I'm pretty fed up with it by now.  Pretty much EVERY chess piece manufacturer has stooped to these depths of marketing idiocy... calling one wood another, making up fancy but meaningless names for woods, and showing ZERO respect for their customers and their supposed gullibility.  I order a "Blood Rosewood" set from House of Staunton, and get a box (obviously from India) that says clearly on the label they forgot to remove before shipping "Padouk".  I buy a "Rosewood" set from another manufacturer, and it looks EXACTLY like a Sheesham wood set from a third manufacturer.  I buy a Sheesham wood set from Straight up Chess and it looks better and "redder" than either of the previous two!  I have a 10 year old "Red Sandalwood" set that looks almost IDENTICAL to two recent "Rosewood" sets, both of which look light-to-mid brown with very little red at all in them.  I have a "real" Ebony set that looks IDENTICAL to an "Ebonized" set, right down to the grain pattern.   All of this makes me HATE the manufacturers and sellers...  at this point I don't honestly know WHAT it is that I've bought!

Chessbazaar seems to be the only seller that actually lists the specific SPECIES NAME of the wood used in the sets they sell... however... if you look closely, they typically ONLY list the Boxwood half of the set, leaving you guessing as to what "version" of "Ebony", "Rosewood", and "Bud Rosewood" they are using.

I say enough is enough... if I'm going to be spending $250 to $800 on a "Luxury" set of chessmen. I want to KNOW what the hell kind of wood it's made from!  This is NOT too much to ask, and I can't believe more buyers aren't asking for it!  Please, please PLEASE, if you are serious about embarking on this new company venture of yours, FIND OUT what woods are being used to make your pieces, and list EXACTLY what it is we'll be buying in your description!

The marketing BS needs to end... something this expensive needs to be described accurately.