Purchasing Chess Set

Hoping someone can offer some suggestions....

I would like to purchase a nice set for OTB play at home.  Nothing extravagant but just a decent set.

I've found multiple sites online and will use that as a last resort, but I would really like to feel the weight of the pieces and look at the set in person.

Any suggestion on the type of store that might (or typically) carries chess sets/accessories?

You could always visit a local chess club.

Or visit a local tourney and handle some sets there.

google chess bazaar might help you ....

                     February 3, 2012

Thursday evening I purchased ten plastic weighted chess sets with green and white vinyl boards, a green carrying case with a slot to carry the board. Each comes with two extra Queens.

Every Thursday they special check them out, they might have what you want.

I bought them at Wholesale Chess out of Utah. They threw in an extra set free and free shipping. They were shipped UPS on Friday and I should have them in several days. Cost was $10.99 each.

They advertise here on Chess.com.

Go up and click on  RESOURCES at the top of this page and you will find shop on line.

As gojacketz suggested, Ebay is prime shopping territory.  House of Staunton holds auctions there and you can get killer deals on woodern sets.  Their professional sets go for like $200 on their website and $40 to $50 on Ebay.  I splurged recently on a high end bud rosewood $1300 set (gulp!) for $271.  Their championship sets (which are the tournament standard in Europe) can often be had for $20 or $30.  Have fun shopping.

Definitely appreciate all the suggestions.

I went ahead and took Denverhigh's suggestion and purchased the tournament set for $30 along with a Saitek clock.

But the deals on eBay sound amazing and I'll definitely need to check those out if I ever find myself wanting to upgrade.

I paid around $400 for my Capablanca Ebony set off Ebay. Oh, well. It was still a good deal, much better than paying full price off of House of Staunton's website. 

You're right about how beautiful those pieces are. I put that Capablanca set on a custom-made board carved from Ebony, Bird's Eye Maple, Paduok, and Cocobolo. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. Friends who come over and play on it start snapping pictures of it.

Here is my playing board for chess and other games. It is a Formica that I bought in 1961 but didn't mount it until 2000. I paid $35.00 at that time.

I still have to get a set of legs for it.

And my butterfly wing chess board from 1930's made in Brazil. The white squares have four 1/4 wing panels and are fluorescent. They don't make them anymore because they are on the endangered species.

Bye for Now.

Oops. I didn't want it to be that big of a pic! But there it is...

I was able to purchase a cool little set that has glass pieces. They are relatively small, but I was able to get it at a Dollar General for a little over $6.50 and the board is a bit flimsy in design, but its cool and serves its purpose. Besides, what makes it extra cool is that the squares are super 3D. Its quite trippy.

Is that the frosted/clear glass set & board that I've seen in Walmart, JC Penney, and other places?

The pieces are frosted/clear and made of glass, but not the board. That is like a thin plastic that bends and if you wanted to you could fold into half, but then you would just destroy the board by doing so. Like I said though it has a super 3D design to the squares so that it looks like they are jumping up at you when you look at it from different angles.