Purchasing first chess set - help please!

Hi guys, I am looking for buying a chess set, something like $300-$500.

I was a big fan of HOS, but it seems like other online stores provides quite good prices/qualites which makes my choice even harder.

What I am interested in is... 

This one, from HOS. It looks all good but my concern is:

Those guys are RED vs BLACK which looks pretty awkward to me, as a total newbie for chess pieces. 

I mean, material for those guys are actually awesome, Ebony and Blood Rosewood, and I can get them around ~550, including shipping cost, which is my maximum. Looks fine. But RED vs BLACK is okay?? o_O?

I would love to order Boxwood/Blood Rosewood but it is out of stock for the time being, so it seems like I cannot use Valentine's day promotion code for it. :p

And today, I found another online store, which looks also pretty cool. But my dream has been having a HOS chess set. Silly, I know. But you know, there are things you just obsessed..

So, my question in summary is: 

1. Is Red vs Black army normal?
2. Any recommendation for other online store?

Thank you in advance guys!

Personally I can't play anything but white v. black. 

Here is another site I don't know if they ship overseas but you might try...they have a nice range of sets and prices. ..

http://www.chessusa.com/

I also don't know about international shipping, but the people at this site are good to deal with.  Maybe you will see somrthing that appeals to you.  HTH

http://www.chessbaron.com/luxury-chess-sets.php

There's a HOS Zagreb '59 boxwood and ebony on Ebay right now.  No idea how that would work from Switzerland, though. 

White and Red is traditional.  Black and dark red don't contrast enough in my opinion.  If price was not a concearn I would buy from Jaques of London.

try the mammoth ivory set, thats in your price range

Does this price include a board or do you already have one?  Personally I'm not too crazy about bloodwood & ebony.  As blake said, not enough contrast.  I would prefer boxwood/rosewood or boxwood/ebony.

There's plenty of Yugoslav styles set from hourseofstantuon that are not black vs red. Don't let the color scare you,i'm sure you are intelligent enough to know what piece is which,regardless of the color or how much of a newbie you are. 

Unless you are buying a plastic chess set,it's very hard to find pure white vs black sets. Most white pieces are painted cream yellow or white yellow,and the black pieces are usually red or black.

Try the House of chess.  The Monarch, the Regal or the Imperial are great sets under thr $100.00 range.

HOS shipping outside the US can be horrendous. Fair warning.

Not enough contrast between the two colors.

I recently bought a set from the House of Staunton, in the same style as the image you posted (Zagreb '59). I bought the 3.875" set in Natural Box and Rosewood along with this board. I found the service, shipping time and quality of the pieces all to be exceptional.

As for your choice of colours, there really is no problem so long as you can easily tell which pieces belong to which side. Personally the contrast between the Ebony and Blood Rosewood pieces wasn't enough (especially as I do much of my study at night under lower light conditions), but you might not have a problem.

Another factor to consider is the contrast between the pieces and the board (specifically between the light pieces and the light squares, dark piees and the dark squares), as this also can make playing or studying difficult if the colours are too similar.

As explained here, The Chess Company is in fact the same company as THe House of Staunton, however I prefer to order direct  from HOS (although The Chess Company has a wider range of books and other paraphenalia, while HOS only stocks boards, pieces and clocks).

If you have any specific questions about the Zagreb set or my experieces with HOS, feel free to ask!

Also, Why is it that you are attracted to the Blood Rosewood and Ebony woods? Is it the colours, the patterning, or something else?

regencychess.co.uk is worth a look. Personally I haven't found a better purveyor of fine sets and boards.

Many thanks to all of you! It really helps.

As I worried about, those Red vs Black looks a bit weird, since there is not enough contrast. :p

And the reason why I got interested in those guys are simple: there are stocks I can order right now! However, I still prefer Boxwood/Blood Rosewood. I think I am not a big fan of Ebony, don't know why.

And I need to buy a board as well since it is my first time to have a chess set which is not a plastic, and/or portable.

So I think I have to check those websites that you've mentioned, and compare which one provides the least expensive price including shipping cost.

Actually I am going to back to Korea, and it was like.. $192 for the USPS shipping to Korea. :(

If I can offer a suggestion, don't worry too much about shipping. Find the set that you really love. Otherwise, in a year or two, you will start wanting that ideal set again and end up spending even more money than you would have if you just got the best one straight away, even if the shipping is a little more expensive. If you've always wanted a HOS set then get one, because even if you settle for an identical set from a different maker, a small part of you will still wish you had bought it.

The Box & Blood Zagreb set loot great to me, btw.

Thanks. I actually tried to buy this one with this board, but in total it makes around >$700 include shipping, which is too much I think.

So, I would stcik with Box & Blood Zagreb, if they have a stock. 

One thing I don't understand is, if I buy a set (chessmen+board) then the shipping cost is $102, and if I buy exactly same set separately, it goes $192. O_o??

Probably because they're pre-packed together or something. Also, I believe that HOS always has stock of the products they advertise.

Contrast between the pieces is very important, as is contrast between the board color vs. piece color. I was worried about this when I bought my set; I was concerned whether the Boxwood pieces would stand out enough on the Bird's Eye Maple squares of the board. Fortunately, the color and texture of that wood were enough not to cause a problem.

Please put a lot of thought into this because this is an expensive set that will last you a lifetime. House of Staunton customer service is top-grade, and I'm sure they'll e-mail you additional photos if you'd like. The owner and his managers will also talk to you about your concerns. If you'd like, I can PM you their e-mail addresses.