You can't find anything in Australia by using a search engine? I did in about 3 seconds by typing "Australian Chess Store" into Google's search engine. Sorry, I didn't poke around any further to see which ones are reasonable on P+H (if any)
Outrageous Shipping Costs
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I bought a wooden chess set from here. I'd buy from them again, quick mail out, good quality product.
Obviously I searched Google, however through my brief search none of the webstores had the products I was searching for (nor at reasonable prices anyway..).
Thanks for the link bevan I'll check it out.
Having just gone to buy a chess.com T-shirt I can confirm this is ridiculous. $60 to send a $22 item of clothing to the UK, uninsured, untracked and no guaranteed delivery time? Such a shame because I'd really like to buy one!
You might do better on eBay, though it CAN be a lot of work.
In addition to shipping cost, you may also need to check for any tax/tariff your country may levy on the imported goods. I recently bought a set of chessmen from an online store based in USA. The chessmen cost around $70. The shipping cost was pricey (around $70), but I wanted the chessmen so bad that I still purchased them anyway. I don't usually buy things online, and that was my first. The item arrived in great condition, but I had to pay an extra $70 for import tax at the local custom office. So in total, I spent about $210 for a $70 item. :(
http://www.chessworld.com.au/ are based in Melbourne, and when I dropped in the sales person actually understood the importance of sizing the board squares correctly for the pieces. I don't know about shipping charges, but from work-related shipping stuff around the country, it will be cheaper than from overseas!
Unfortunately (as usual!) the number of tournament sized boards were limited. I preferred the one of the boards with 6cm squares rather than the 5.5cm squares you'll doubtless be familiar with from vinyl boards.
Quality -- I'm not a woodworker so don't know how to describe the construction well. I believe I've seen better boards, but usually at 2+ times the cost, and typically with too small squares.
My 2c. Follow up or ignore as you wish; I have no connection (not even a customer at the moment) with the shop.
Most Australian suppliers seem to have the same products; clearly there are one or two distributors supplying most of the retail shops.
Good luck! I'm hunting a board (or maybe a table ...) myself. Having taken the plunge and bought some pieces (not here yet) I'll wait until I can see them and be confident of their colours before proceeding further.
I have bought from HOS, the shipping was horrendously priced. However I think postage in general is very expensive from the us
bevanbraves wrote:
I bought a wooden chess set from here. I'd buy from them again, quick mail out, good quality product.
$70 aud for delivery spent 5 hours & had spent 3 hours looking adding stuff to cart
I was browsing the shop and found some cool, niche things that I would love to have: the pawn stress reliever, and the cheap chess piece keyrings. All was good and dandy, and my subtotal was around £6. The prices were unbelievably good and I was really looking forward to buying them! Until I saw the delivery prices... £20 DELIVERY TO THE UK?! I was so disappointed and immediately backed out from the purchase.
Hello chess.com!
I was recently looking at the site www.wholesalechess.com and was very interested in buying a few miscellaneous items + a chess clock. It was all well and good until I went to the checkout and realised that it was going to cost me $48 minimum to have it shipped to Australia!!
I was wondering if anyone knows a good, reasonably priced chess store in Australia (online or offline it doesn't really matter I'm sure there will be one in Brisbane) for a wide range of products?
Thanks for your help :)
Mark.