Great information! Nice looking pieces
Get What You Pay For, And Sometimes More
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Here are a few more high value candidates.
The Zagreb and Monarch Staunton sets in bud rosewood from the House of Chess store on eBay. Both sets go for $150 including free shipping and a nice wooden storage box.
BUD ROSEWOOD ZAGREB
BUD ROSEWOOD MONARCH
I think the best value from House of Chess may be the sheesham version of their Monarch Staunton set above for only $88 delivered (excluding box).
Moving up the food chain a bit, there's the Chess Pieces' New American set in blood rosewood for $280. A very high quality set, comparable in every way to sets selling for 2-3X the price from other vendors.
How about CB 50% off clearance sets? I am really happy with the two I grabbed.
I got this set at 184.5$
And this at $120
Eyechess wrote:
We talk about Chess sets on this forum. We talk about individual sets and places that sell those sets.
In many instances, someone will post about a set they got and many of us end up buying that set from the seller. We are pretty good to each other here showing what we find is nice and not so nice.
Sometimes we help each other with the not so nice by giving sympathy and often advice on how to fix things when possible.
It seems that there are a few places that we have found to discuss on where to buy sets. You very often read, The House of Staunton, Noj, The Official Staunton Company, Chess Bazaar as places where we get Chess pieces and equipment from. Sure there are also others not mentioned as much like The Rochester Chess Center, The Chess Store, Chess USA, The House of Chess, and some others. Remember I'm talking about wood pieces now.
Most of the time we have found the old rule that you get what you pay for to be true, the more you pay, the better the quality.
However, I have found some sets that look, feel and play a lot more expensive than their cost.
Don't get me wrong I really like my more expensive sets from The Official Staunton Company, The House of Staunton and The Rochester Chess Center. I must say that I definitely got what I paid for in these sets. They're nice.
But there are some sets that literally knock my socks off when I look at how little I paid for them. Understand that I pretty much always find some sale or discount when I buy a set. I got 2 of the HoS Fischer-Spassky Commemorative sets, Golden Rosewood and Ebonized, at $142 delivered, each because they were on sale for $149 and I used all the discounts I could get with them. And in all honesty I think the Fischer-Spassky sets are about $250 nice, not the $400 they originally charged. But at $250 nice for $140 this set doesn't compare with even the first of my exceptional sets.
The House of Staunton Players Series is the first one of these. This set actually is nicer and a bit more refined than the above mentioned Fischer-Spassky sets. It's quality is comparable with the Marshall Series in Rosewood that I have. And I ended up getting that set for just under $140 delivered. Here it is:
Another knock your socks off set for the money is the Chess Bazaar Soviet Latvian set that I just got for $101.99, delivered. This set is of a much better quality than others in this price range. Notice how Chess Bazaar sells all their other Soviet reproductions at $200 or more range.
When I opened this set in our family room, my wife first commented on how odd the set looked with its big Knights. Then a little later she told me she realized how nice the set really looked. And I'm here to tell you this set looks as nice as a lot of sets selling over $250. Yep, here it is:
And the third and final set that I own that I think was in this category is the Paul Morphy Series set from The Official Staunton Company. This set was recently on sale and I got it for just over $100 delivered. And this set looks a lot like the HoS Players Series as far as quality of the cutting and finish. While this is a smaller sized set it still is comparable to sets costing $225 or more in the market. Here it is in Ebonised:
I am amazed at what good of a deal you got on the Official Staunton Paul Morphy set. That set has been on my radar for a while. Did the sale JUST recently expire?
Oct 11, 2016
0
#7
ablankslate wrote:
I am amazed at what good of a deal you got on the Official Staunton Paul Morphy set. That set has been on my radar for a while. Did the sale JUST recently expire?
This happened a number of weeks ago.
You could message Carl to see if and when another sale might happen on this set. In fact I recall someone doing this after and getting the sale price.
Eyechess wrote:
ablankslate wrote:
I am amazed at what good of a deal you got on the Official Staunton Paul Morphy set. That set has been on my radar for a while. Did the sale JUST recently expire?
This happened a number of weeks ago.
You could message Carl to see if and when another sale might happen on this set. In fact I recall someone doing this after and getting the sale price.
Mission failed. I took you up on your advice and was offered a 15% off coupon. Was worth a try though.
Eyechess,
I know you like the Players Series from HOS, but what's your opinion of the Reykjavik II series. I personally like heavier pieces and since its 20% heavier than the Players it has piqued my interest. They have a 20% off sale going now so I may be in a buying mode. Any input would be greatly appreciated, by you or anyone else that may have an opinion on these two sets.
Oct 15, 2016
0
#10
That is a nice looking set.
If you want a heavy set, then I suggest the Ultimate Sheesham or Rosewood set sold by The Rochester Chess Center.
Here is a link to their Sheesham one:
http://www.chessset.com/ultimate-sheesham.html
You will see it is just over 50 ounces for the set, in either wood, which is heavier than the HoS one you mentioned by something like 6 ounces..
I bought this set in Rosewood asking them to give me a non-striped version as they have pictured with a board and not the one they have pictured by itself, which is pretty striped.
But the Sheesham is less expensive than the Rosewood and if you call them, there is usually some kind of discount for being a USCF member or something.
I play with this set quite a bit. I really like the heaviness of it. Understand that it only comes with 2 Queens but that hasn't been a problem for me.
The HoS Reykjavik looks nice. The people at HoS have told me it is the same as their Fischer-Spassky Commemorative set, which I bought on clearance. The pictures of the sets do look very similar. I do like mine.
If you get either the Ebonized or Golden Rosewood which is pretty much the same as Sheesham, the set is listed at $199. With your 20% off that brings the price down to just under $160, before shipping, not too bad.
I really do like my Rosewood Ultimate set though. And with the list price of the Sheesham being $119 before shipping, I would look at that one before committing to the HoS set.
Thanks, Eyechess, those sets look really good. It's never an easy choice for me when I'm looking for a new set and now I've got more to consider. Thanks also for letting me know about that particular store, I don't think I've been there before.
Oct 16, 2016
0
#12
It's no problem. We like to take care of each other on this forum.
By the way the brief story on this set is that Dewain Barber was the person that first created and had the plastic Ultimate set made. This set was and is very popular. And it's one of the heaviest if not the heaviest set available.
Dewain then took the design and found a manufacturer in India to make that same design in wood. Ron Lohrman owns and runs The Rochester Chess Center and his son Shelby is the one that bought the American Chess Equipment business from Dewain. Ron still gets that Ultimate set, designed and originally commissioned by Dewain, made in India in wood by that same manufacturer.
So, this is the Ultimate Chess set with its very heavy weight and non-tippy design and all, but in wood not plastic.
A set which I own and like - "Fierce Knight" pieces from The Chess Store - 4 inch King, 52 ounce, ebonized boxwood....$139.00USD...a 10% discount is available...shipping is $5.00USD. Note I do not care for their Golden Rosewood pieces - I had ordered them but the Golden Rosewood looked more like Hershey's Chocolate, so I returned them. However, the ebonized boxwood is nice.
https://thechessstore.com/fierce-knight-staunton-chess-set-ebonized-boxwood-pieces-4-king/
Similar in design to the "Fierce Knight" set is their "Exclusive Staunton" set, which I also own and like (in ebonized boxwood).
https://thechessstore.com/new-exclusive-staunton-chess-pieces/
https://thechessstore.com/staunton-wood-chess-pieces/
We talk about Chess sets on this forum. We talk about individual sets and places that sell those sets.
In many instances, someone will post about a set they got and many of us end up buying that set from the seller. We are pretty good to each other here showing what we find is nice and not so nice.
Sometimes we help each other with the not so nice by giving sympathy and often advice on how to fix things when possible.
It seems that there are a few places that we have found to discuss on where to buy sets. You very often read, The House of Staunton, Noj, The Official Staunton Company, Chess Bazaar as places where we get Chess pieces and equipment from. Sure there are also others not mentioned as much like The Rochester Chess Center, The Chess Store, Chess USA, The House of Chess, and some others. Remember I'm talking about wood pieces now.
Most of the time we have found the old rule that you get what you pay for to be true, the more you pay, the better the quality.
However, I have found some sets that look, feel and play a lot more expensive than their cost.
Don't get me wrong I really like my more expensive sets from The Official Staunton Company, The House of Staunton and The Rochester Chess Center. I must say that I definitely got what I paid for in these sets. They're nice.
But there are some sets that literally knock my socks off when I look at how little I paid for them. Understand that I pretty much always find some sale or discount when I buy a set. I got 2 of the HoS Fischer-Spassky Commemorative sets, Golden Rosewood and Ebonized, at $142 delivered, each because they were on sale for $149 and I used all the discounts I could get with them. And in all honesty I think the Fischer-Spassky sets are about $250 nice, not the $400 they originally charged. But at $250 nice for $140 this set doesn't compare with even the first of my exceptional sets.
The House of Staunton Players Series is the first one of these. This set actually is nicer and a bit more refined than the above mentioned Fischer-Spassky sets. It's quality is comparable with the Marshall Series in Rosewood that I have. And I ended up getting that set for just under $140 delivered. Here it is:
Another knock your socks off set for the money is the Chess Bazaar Soviet Latvian set that I just got for $101.99, delivered. This set is of a much better quality than others in this price range. Notice how Chess Bazaar sells all their other Soviet reproductions at $200 or more range.
When I opened this set in our family room, my wife first commented on how odd the set looked with its big Knights. Then a little later she told me she realized how nice the set really looked. And I'm here to tell you this set looks as nice as a lot of sets selling over $250. Yep, here it is:
And the third and final set that I own that I think was in this category is the Paul Morphy Series set from The Official Staunton Company. This set was recently on sale and I got it for just over $100 delivered. And this set looks a lot like the HoS Players Series as far as quality of the cutting and finish. While this is a smaller sized set it still is comparable to sets costing $225 or more in the market. Here it is in Ebonised: