As always, do your due diligence and research those prices before buying.
Here's just one example:
"1950s Soviet" set
$210 at GlobeCreations. $140 at RoyalChessMall.
Nice set, btw!!
If you haven't checked their website properly, I must recommend you to consider it again because they're out of stocks from last 3-6 months.
It is good globe creations has picked up on this thread. I think it may help them better understand the market. As for the notated board with the letters/numbers on the wrong axis, I noticed all the notated boards on the site are notated in the same wrong way. Some advice for globe creations - replace the photos of their notated boards with correctly notated boards, and do it soon.
I imagine that the “wrongly printed” board was meant to be used for checkers instead of chess.
It's being sold as a chess board in two links. Clearly it's just a mistake the company made. They'll fix it I'm sure. Well, probably.
Hey, I just realized that if you click on the purple thing on the left side of the web page, it offers you a gaming device that, after you spin it, awards you one of several discounts to be applied to your order by means of generating a discount code. Apparently you can spin BEFORE you buy, or even shop for that matter. That might reframe prices more attractively in addition to predictably. I don't know how it decides how often, or how many spins you are allowed.
It is good globe creations has picked up on this thread. I think it may help them better understand the market. As for the notated board with the letters/numbers on the wrong axis, I noticed all the notated boards on the site are notated in the same wrong way. Some advice for globe creations - replace the photos of their notated boards with correctly notated boards, and do it soon.
I agree! How many other manufacturers have bothered! Maybe, at this present time, this vendors greatest strength is that they are willing to engage! The impression I got was that they were keen to prove themselves! Maybe that translates into 'due' consideration, special service, or discounts when you get that far.
I imagine that the “wrongly printed” board was meant to be used for checkers instead of chess.
It's being sold as a chess board in two links. Clearly it's just a mistake the company made. They'll fix it I'm sure. Well, probably.
It'll also come with right notated chessboard, just working on it.
It is good globe creations has picked up on this thread. I think it may help them better understand the market. As for the notated board with the letters/numbers on the wrong axis, I noticed all the notated boards on the site are notated in the same wrong way. Some advice for globe creations - replace the photos of their notated boards with correctly notated boards, and do it soon.
will come soon, thanks to everyone for letting us know to make improvement.
The problem seems to be convincing sellers (manufacturing/retailers) that the thing many, most, if not all of us invested and potential buyers are concerned most with is quality control in service of aesthetics.
Am I correct in thinking that we would rather wait longer, and possibly pay a tiny bit more, to win the 'piece' of mind, LOL (sorry, I couldn't resist), that comes of 'knowing', rather than 'hoping', that our satisfaction is assured.
And by assured, I mean instantly! Upon receipt of delivery: not after a myriad of back-and-forths (however accommodating and congenial) rests a final outcome that the word 'luxury' alone should have ensured.
If I could get such a guarantee, I think I would be willing to give anyone a try. But as it is, all we get are apologies after the fact, when what we really want are promises before the fact. Beauty requires commitment!
^^ Cosign. I don't want to have to contact the manufacturer at all, let alone back and forths. If it's done properly fiat time, I'm happy.
^^ Cosign. I don't want to have to contact the manufacturer at all, let alone back and forths. If it's done properly fiat time, I'm happy.
I agree. I posted elsewhere and previously on this forum, cautioning against people being too much and too easily satisfied, mollified, and pacified by offers of 'faux-friendship' (manifest in language of undue familiarity) from service providers, instead of insisting on the actual service that is appellate to their obligation; the former costs them nothing, save a smile and the theatre of the moment, while the latter costs them in output, extension, and effort ongoing. Once I've made payment, my responsibility to the transaction is commuted, and the sellers is just begun. Once I am in glad receipt of the product, our future association is in principle as well as practice rescinded. No further compensation is, or was ever on offer! Thanks, and good bye!
I myself never trade against friendship* for personal advantage, so feigning familiarity (though not so too courtesy and dignity) is as pointless as a long distance relationship. Those who claim many friends, 'use' many friends; whose proximity punishes them. I want simply to make a purchase, and then get on with enjoying the product without trial of being pulled into a web of proposed on-going 'partnership', which invariably involves me spending patience in payment of...what...that which I have already compensated the vendor for, through 'sufficient' exchange of money? The sufficiency is described simply by satisfying the asking price. The vendor therefore defines the terms of his own satisfaction, so why then should the buyer not define the terms of his own satisfaction too?
The tendency for modern consumers to 'feel' for retailers is born on the belief that because they are not fully satisfied with the transaction, that similarly so, the vendor must also be 'somewhat' disappointed. Beyond payment, no further courtesy is warranted to a vendor; that's how barter works. As pleasant as many vendors are, ours will be a matter of business. What they say of business and pleasure is true, as in practice one is wont to propose in guise in pursuit of the other. You know the story of the Scorpion and the Frog!
That being said...
*My father taught me that you are wrong to prevail upon a man's stock and trade in pursuit of favour. That is to say, if you need a plumber, and your friend is a plumber, PAY HIM! You 'can' however ask him to help you with your electrical system without obligation of recompense; and vice versa.
Okay…
…so I have spent the last couple of days reading through reams of forum threads related to both ‘reported’ and unreported dissatisfaction with luxury chess pieces. By unreported, I mean also those testimonies by people who paid for ‘luxury’ sets but were too much blinded by general enthusiasm (remember that beauty and luxury are not the same thing) for, and guilt over (for having indulged) their new toy to mount an argument against it, despite having payed up to $1000 dollars to win right of protest.
To be sure, many people are not fortunate enough (or given) to the experience of ‘luxury’ on a sufficiently routine basis to know how to frame it and give it context when on rare occasion they are gladly come to it, but on some fundamental level, an awareness of an item’s ‘failure to achieve’ impresses itself on even the most ascetic individual, for which they reproach themselves for being overly particular. BUT…there is no overparticular when you have spent several hundred dollars on something that could be had in ‘similar’ form for $50; and that one likely includes a board!
As many other individuals are wont to become rhapsodic about reinventing the defects in their expensive pieces as qualifying it as ‘art’, protesting that this or that imbalance, irregularity, or surface blemish, “only serves to reinforce awareness of the authentic organic beauty of the natural medium”, or, “each piece’s features were just sufficiently different to reflect the diversity, as well as similitude, in report of the general population”, or, “you can everywhere see conspicuous and copious evidence of the loving unsupported artisanal hand that carved them”. Luxury is the product of intention, not creativity. No one intends defects!
None of these fabricated observations constitutes an attribute worthy of reinvention as an accolade. Anything manufactured to, on, with, or by a template by it very definition fails to qualify as art (art requires creativity not skill), and truth be told, 90% of chess pieces are pounded out in minutes using task designed tools that allow those who are at first unskilled labor to instantly approximate quality. With experience comes only expediency. So, for your chess set to truly participate in luxurious, it must possess quality and uniformity of material, fit and finish, without which there is no luxury.
Philosophical indefeasibility (the important element of which embraces ‘all’ or every) posits that in order for a concept to participate in its construct, in this case ‘luxury’, the entirety of it must be characterized by that trait, or the statement is false. That being the case, even one blemish eliminates a thing conceived in partnership from participating in luxury. Luxury then surely means ‘free of ALL material or crafting defect and workmanship’. The set (or side) comprises the pieces and passes on its obligation of luxury, while the defective piece, which compose the side, pass on their defect to the whole. To fail in this component definition is for a thing to be alienated from luxury, however beautiful it may otherwise be. Luxury is about material perfection, not beauty. If it wasn’t intended it has defect, and is not a luxury item
That being said, I have complied a list of the things that chess piece collectors have declared herein as ‘actually’, rather than simply imagined (things they state, but in practice recant of for want of other things more important) needs. All seem to want honesty and transparency from a reliable manufacturer/retailers of high-quality products more than they want economy and quick delivery dates; the general population it would seem would gladly trade both of those to win greater product satisfaction, because that eliminates both effort and conflict over who will bear the burden of the shipping and return costs that arise to sour the experience.
This check list represents the existant and reoccurring problems that have come to define current dissatisfaction with factory-direct/on-line chess set orders. It persists to define a manufacturer’s surer route to customer satisfaction; which, not to put too fine a point on, boils down to quality control, which proves to be too broad an allowance. So, I have endeavoured to direct the mind that it might then direct the eye and then the hand. While nothing is perfect, luxury has no meaning if it does not get you imperceptibly close by affording convincing illusion.
Typical problems with chess pieces sold as ‘luxury’:
o Inconsistent depth of color or grain; especially in the light boxwood pieces (most other being stained to one degree or another).
o Unacceptable depth (too light or dark) or ‘degree’ (too red or brown) of color relative to expectations set up by the advertised web image.
o Inconsistent color or grain in the red/brown pieces caused by insufficient ‘color balancing’ (staining).
o Cracked and split bases both upon delivery, or within short weeks or months of receipt,
o No expedient hot-line or and free mechanism for quick replacement of defective pieces.
o Knight with crossed, splayed or crazed eyes.
o Carved knights poorly affixed to ‘turned’ bases, either sloppily (with gaps) or poorly (crooked).
o Failure to include extra queens as a matter of routine on all sets proposed as being anything more than a starter sets.
o Natural Boxwood grain marred by residual brown buffing Tripoli which was not cleared form grain before buffing and waxing.
o Much lower degree of overall lustre or polish than was once the case (very common), because they rely on wax alone, rather than buffing ‘prior’ to wax, to impart superficial shine only.
o Dishonesty, or lack of transparency about which form of ebony* was used.
o Use of stain, without declaration as such, to both darken and disguise alternative woods, beyond use of the euphemism ‘ebonized’, to refer to died boxwood.
o Failure to reply to promptly to ‘paid’ customers (despite the fact customer have paid for customer-service, which is built into the price) because companies realizes no additional profit by this practise.
o Lack of ability or willingness to deal with simple customer requests.**
o Unrealistic, impractical, unethical or misleading replacement conditions, both in principle and practice.
o No convenient or economical provision for buying individual pieces as needed, if you damage one yourself.
o Lack of, or a failure to honor a suitable warranty term (should be at least 1 year), separate and apart from any provisional 30 day return policy.
*I recently posted an article about the ‘myth’ of solid black ebony and the long-time general practise of color ‘regulating’ as a means to meet consumer expectation. The response from many was that they would prefer to see the grain showing through to prove their material (providing that the grain is uniformly present in all pieces), but I think that the average person fails to realize just ‘how’ alternately light or dark striped forms (non-heartwood) of ebony can be.
**Additionally, collectors would like to be able to make special requests of a retailer who manufacturers their own products. For instance, it should not be a hardship to get a particular style in a wood or color other than the one it is advertised in, or with a specific depth of color in mind. Such simple requests do not constitute customization in the formal sense and should be easily and reliably transacted.
If you can’t deliver luxury products that satisfies all of these elements at the price point you have chosen, most customers would it seems prefer that you increase the price a bit (for these thing cost not much in effort or materials), and ship the pieces they want, and are willing to pay for, only as quality control allows.
Having contacted and connected with Globe Creations, I am now resolved that a ‘live’ connection with a manufacturer that I am unfamiliar with, but who has declared them self and their business plan to me publicly on this forum, is likely a better risk than someone whose materials and integrity I have already grown suspect of by evidence of prior experience.
Trust starts somewhere, and it is always a leap of faith based on resolution of character. I like what has been posted by Globe Creations. There are no guarantees, but I know too that trust is best strained at its inception, and friendship wears thin the fabric of trust. Its best to trade on claims of integrity before they have too many times been challenged, so I feel safest going first.
To that end I am going to make a not inconsiderable purchase from unknown provider Globe Creations. Rather than acquiring over time what need I already anticipate, I am going to purchase 3 different sets to explore the integrity and manufacturing prowess of this company. I will be buying 1.) a Berlin, 2.) a King’s Bridle, and 3.) a Varese, to test that they are in earnest.
Each set offers different tests and challenges to a manufacturer’s skill and integrity (the ways in which a manufacture, as invited by design and production, choses or not to cut corners), and I am curious to see how this provider deals with the challenges and opportunities both, to trade against quality control, relative to the more established players. Could it be worse?
With no detail to challenge the eye, the Berlin offers simple lines whose broad flat surfaces demand regard of grain matching, and of an extra degree (rather than an allowance of casual disregard) for the care and attention spent on their fill and polish. I have personal experience of the simple set being profoundly released and realised by small effort of more diligent buffing.
The face of knight of the Bridle challenges the carver, and therefore too the companies quality control. There ‘should’ be a fairly high rate of discard of hand-carved pieces on occasion of a defect arresting the piece’s ‘intended’ character and aesthetic. There is more of tension than character in a poorly carved expression; no one wants bugged, crossed, or wall-eyed knights!
The long torso and throat of the Varese design is a test of a machinist’s caliper and template work in pursuit of symmetry of side. Tools that are worn too quickly reveal themselves with this kind of design, and it is too often the case that one piece is wizened down too far, while another is left corpulent in elevation. Its fractions of a millimeter, but the eye catches it.
I’m going to place my order today and make it clear that I do not want them to short-change due diligence to win either greater economy or utility for themselves, under the guise of rewarding me with greater expedition. Take your time, do it right, do it once, and your legacy will write your future. I look forward to reporting out the results…6 months from now…LOL!
You seem to be a person that is unreasonable with your expectations in life, as well as a transaction. I wouldn't want you as a customer. Take some advice from my dear friend the late Mr. Shaibel: "You resign now."
I'm talking about the tskeldon.
You seem to be a person that is unreasonable with your expectations in life, as well as a transaction. I wouldn't want you as a customer. Take some advice from my dear friend the late Mr. Shaibel: "You resign now."
Its done!
Lets hope for all involved that I'm correct. There are many lessons to be learned here, but the truth is, those who rationalize their own sloth and meekness, or who had learning difficulties when they were young, didn't actually out outgrow their condition: they just lost track of it for avoiding the tests of life necessary to reacquaint oneself with either success or humility.
The quoted post is dripping with irony, not the least of which is that people who accept, whatever they are given come to define the essence of resigning (where I stay on and fight), as they allow 'others' to define not only the terms necessary to their own satisfaction, but also the limits they set upon your right to dictate your terms. What is saddening is that most people do.
The result is of course that..everybody wants the low-hanging fruit of YOUR business! But, there is no privilege, pride or honour in being 'allowed' to pay market value for a defective product. I routinely pay hundreds of thousands of dollars less for properties than market value, and then turn around and sell them for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than market.
This though, is a matter of making an accounting of the relative merits of aesthetics; whether or not they matter! It's the difference be engineering utility and architectural value (engineers and architects don't get along). A things value may be more than its worth to one, and that is decided by ones character. It is a gift to be able to participate in all forms of appreciation.
All who do not care, cast themselves as pawns in someone else's game. They are either not old enough to remember when things were different, not aware enough to know the difference, or too indifferent to the difference to care: both about the difference itself, and the fact that they have been required to pay for it regardless of whether they can make an accounting of it.
You are right sir. Companies with inferior products are no more want of my business than I am of their products, and our hard negotiations settle that to mutual personal realization. Just so is the case that you and I would likely find no franchise. Fortunately there are always other options. The question is...whose practices profit the 'general' well being the most.
__________________________!
[I will leave this space blank for anyone who may want to take the opportunity to jump in to insert, after the fashion that you began, a cheeky chess nomenclature to theatrically define the state of play as it now stands on this board following my last move.]
Thanks sound67! And thanks for your patience with my posts. My investment in life and in people is more often than not rewarded, though as you've observed, not without some cost to all involved. Fortunately for everyone here, other writing commitments now obligate me elsewhere, but I will post out as things progress with promise of greater brevity going forward...starting now, no...now! LOL! No really, I have to go. Bye!
Aha, you are very busy! Now the long comments make sense. As Mark Twain said: “I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one.”
Am I missing something with all the folks complaining about the coordinates on the board pictured? What is wrong with this? It's being shown from the Black point of view... ???????????????????
I happen to like it!
I imagine that the “wrongly printed” board was meant to be used for checkers instead of chess.
depends on the player as they can use it as they want, also we can consider your recommendations.