Royal Chess Mall

  Lol, they are NOT just a little more expensive. In fact, they are sometimes, 3-4 times more expensive; sometimes 5-6 times more expensive.... They even sell chess pieces as high as $2000 or more! Are they any better in regards to cracking? I don't believe so. When recently, I was doing my research regarding chess pieces, I learned about possible cracking and I also learned pieces from expensive vendors like HoS can also crack. As of now, I have not seen any proof or evidence whatsoever that pieces from HoS or your other favorite vendors are less prone to cracking. Only a fool would pay $600-$800 for a set of pieces that he can get elsewhere for $200 solely based on a wishful expectation that it will not crack. Of course, after the sale support matters but it seems vendors like RCM and Chess Bazaar are offering adequately good after the sale support.

  Or, you are the one who has no clue what you are talking about or perhaps, you work for them. Anyway, I don't care about your assertions. You can believe or promote whatever lie you want. I do however enjoy counter-arguing false claims made by fan boys or paid workers (whatever is the case). Cracking up people's deceitful claims gives me as much satisfaction as playing a good game of chess, lol.

RCM has always been a good vendor for me, as has HOS.

Dang, such good free advertising 

Dart tops or not,it's a gorgeous set!

Btw,as stated by a master luthier to vintage Martin Guitars....."All wood wants to crack".I agree that the woods used by most chess vendors is either not of the highest quality,or not properly seasoned.

Before I decided to start a personal collection of chess sets,I did my research on various forums and HOS got flamed as much as any vendor.....It does not mean they don't currently sell great sets,but when it comes to chess sets,the "only guarantee of wood perfection" comes from NOJ!

Btw,I don't wish to demean anyone here....Many of you guys have stunning sets and some of you are hurting my bank account.

I have nothing against HOS but I see no evidence that their pieces are any better despite their much higher price tag. Nobody here has presented any proof or evidence whatsoever. In an ideal world, all vendors explain in full details the whole process of making these pieces and the measures applied to pieces in order to minimize the chance of cracking. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. For all we can say we absolutely don't know if HOS does anything different. It seems pieces can crack due to cold dry weather regardless of who has sold the pieces. The Hadrian set I bought from RCM is sold under the title 'Preston' by HOS for three times more! They look identical and are very possibly made by the same manufacturer for different vendors.

Only a fool would believe in a fairy tale because a random guy on Internet declares so.

There is evidence that some of these sets are made better and of a higher quality than other sets from different companies.

The story begins back in 1998 and 1999 with Frank Camaratta.  Yes it started earlier than that, but this is when I started talking with Frank and buying Chess sets from him.

During that time Frank not only owned and operated HoS, but he was wholesaling Chess sets to Jaques.  Yes, this is the same and famous Jaques in London.

Frank told me that he was coming out with a new set style.  He had been doing this 2 - 3 times a rear.  This time though he told me that his HoS offering was the same design as one for Jaques.  The Jaques set was more expensive, by quite a bit, compared to the HoS set.

I asked him what the difference was and he told me that for the Jaques sets, they were using only the best of the woods from the stock available.  While the HoS sets were still dried and aged properly, they didn't select only the best grains and coloring and such as they did with the more expensive jaques set.

Frank also took great care to design the individual pieces to not only look more like the originals, but he made sure the balance of each piece was optimal in design.  Frank is a retired engineer for NASA, you know, a rocket scientist.  He made sure the designs which included the weights minimized or eliminated the cracking opportunities of each piece.  So yes, Frank made sure his sets would not crack where others might and would.

When all you do is look at images on the internet, those cheaper, in both price and quality, pieces look the same as the better ones.  But, you can't believe what you see on the internet, can you.  Or I should say only a fool would believe that these cheaper sets are made as high of a quality as the more expensive ones just because some random guy on the Internet declares it so.

But hey, no one is forcing you to buy anything.  So feel good in not buying the better made sets from The House of Staunton and Official Staunton.  Just don't be surprised when those cheap sets degrade and kind of fall apart.

The other important thing is that there is no one chess piece that can be guaranteed against cracking.  Even some of the original Jaques sets have developed cracks.

Ah, but I know from personal experience with both The House of Staunton and Official Staunton that if a piece from one of their sets has a flaw or crack, they will quickly and happily provide a replacement, at no charge.

What you need to do is look at the percentage of problems, cracks and such of any given company.  Both the House of Staunton and Official Staunton have a very low percentage of such problems, and that tells.

Noj is another story and I'll put up another post on them.

Noj is the best.  And no one that knows anything disputes that.

Why, you ask?  Because Noj is not a big manufacturer of Chess sets.  The whole company includes Gregor, his brother and their retired father that comes in only to do the finish work.  That's it, no more people.  Also, they really have their major income turning wood fountain pens for the European market.  They only make their Chess sets in small batches of 5 to 8 sets, one batch at a time.

Just like Frank Camaratta and Carl of Official Staunton, it begins with the wood.  In the case of Noj, they use only European Maple and European Walnut.  That's it.  Their different colored dark sets are dyed European Maple, the same wood as all their white pieces.

They make sure this wood is properly dried.  I remember seeing a picture of the outside of their workshop where they had wood stacked and drying.

They also only weight the pieces lightly so the weights do not put undo pressure on the wood to cause cracking.

To answer some questions posted earlier in this thread, I bought my first Noj Dubrovnik Walnut set in May of 2010.  I know they were making sets before that but I don't know exactly when they started. 

I have never heard of any pieces made by them cracking, ever.

That 2010 Walnut set saw a collar on each Walnut Queen develop a chip, in 2017, seven years after I purchased the set.  Gregor had me send one of the Queens to him for wood matching.  He made 2 new Walnut Queens and shipped them to me at no charge, free.  The European Walnut is a bit more fragile than the European Maple, so I usually recommend getting the dark pieces dyed and not Walnut.

Now, I am telling you the complete truth..  I am an eye doctor and make no income from anything Chess.  I have no reason to sell or push any product or company in this regard.

The evidence of Noj is indisputable.  There is not one person that actually owns a Noj set that says anything bad about their products and quality.

The only people that cast dispersion at Noj are people that do not own any of their sets.  This is a classic case of some random guy on the internet saying something bad about a company and their products and he has no evidence backing up his claims.

Or I should say only a fool would believe that these more expensive sets are made as high of a quality than the less expensive ones just because they are expensive. This EyeChess just don't understand that HoS is paying Customs and shipping for the products that they import from India and CB and RCM are not paying a penny as they manufacture and sell directly from India. And HoS sets are more finely and carefully crafted like the NoJ one than these cheaper sets from CB and RCM. But as I have always said that the reason for less price of CB and RCM is not low quality woods, it is because low labor cost and wood price in India and also the high price of HoS is because of Customs and shipping.
$999 Apple iphone is selling for $1400 in India doesn't means that they are of high quality than the one sold in USA. It means we are paying customs. Understand this Basic Business World thing.

Ah, but there is evidence that the sets HoS sells, specifically the Frank Camaratta ones, use a better quality wood in that it is properly dried and the wood pieces have a better grain.

Also, the Frank Camaratta sets are of a very high manufacture level.

The Official Staunton Sets are no longer made in India.  And I know that Carl is also very accurate in getting the best quality pieces.

I never said Chess Bazaar and Royal Chess Mall were not able to match the quality of the HoS sets.  I did and am saying that for them to equal that quality they would need to pick better woods and use the highest manufacturing techniques.  And if they did, their sets would not be so inexpensive, read cheap.  Look at Staunton Castle.  He used to make sets for Frank and Carl.  He makes very high quality sets.  And he charges more money as well.  And he is in India, also.

I am not the one who claimed he knows everything. YOU ARE THE ONE yet without presenting any evidence or proof whatsoever. All I said is that I am not convinced your claims are true that HoS sells better pieces. I am not even convinced you are an honest person who truly believes in what he says as I have no personal knowledge about who you are. This is not saying I know everything. I am simply saying I don't believe you. So here is the state of this discussion as of now: You claimed something about chess pieces from HoS without any evidence whatsoever. Eyechess did the same thing. He came forward and told a nice long story and believed we must take his words the equivalence of truth. I leave my assessment for when I can personally know you guys. That's not the case as of now.

  It is true that the price difference is partially due to custom and import fees, NA companies have to pay import duties on pieces they import from India, China, etc.. However, that probably only explain some a small percentage of the price difference. If HoS sells a set of pieces for $600 which can be had for $200 when ordered directly from India., maybe just $50 or so is due to the initial import fees. The rest of the price difference may be due to the cost of the company operation in NA which is higher. However, even this factor may not explain it all: employees and managers who expect higher salaries, CEO's and company owners who want to make million of dollars in profits, etc.. I have to say wouldn't be surprised if most of the price difference directly goes into the pockets of the CEO's and company owners. Who knows this is not the case. After all, wealth gap have grown so out of proportion in US in the last few decades.

 Say that to yourself.

Well I own a good number of sets from C.B. and other mfgrs.....Incl RCM, EraRetro,O.S. and others.....One look at the woods on my NOJ set and it was clear to me that those guys use far superior woods.I have worked with wood and used to collect fine acoustic guitars.I don't pass myself off as a definitive expert,but unless you own an NOJ set,you don't know the whole story.

Btw,my comments were not meant to disparage anyone from purchasing sets from C.B. or RCM,or anyone else either. My last 2 sets were from RCM followed by C.B. and were of very high quality.

I only have one NOJ set,but it is clearly of a higher quality.....Bottom line,imo......There's plenty of good stuff to chose from.

Here is the summary of the intense discussion here. Very few random guys showed up here and claimed chess pieces from HoS and NOJ are better quality than those sold by alternative vendors based in India. All of these guys have failed to bring any proof or evidence for their claims so they have merely sounded either biased (store fanboys) or clueless people who have ended up paying a hefty high price tag to these shops and now they are trying to justify their purchase. Who otherwise who in their right mind pays three four times for the very exact same set. some of them claimed these expensive shops use more expensive wood while some other claimed they use a different processing that prevent the pieces from cracking. However, there are report on Internet that theses pieces also crack.I am sure there are many intelligent American people who do not fall for this funny marketing. Some do fall though and I am sorry for their failure. Despite the hype, it seems Chess does not make us, the humans more intelligent.

My advice for the audience here: don't fall for the self-inventory arguments that justify paying three times more for the very same product. It's all scam.

Actually, you are wrong, but that’s alright. 
The actual result is that we own and use some very nice Chess sets that you think we overpaid for.

We do not need to prove anything to you or anyone else.

So go ahead and live with your delusions.

I am glad for you that you enjoy your nice chess set and if you want to pay a middle man a hefty commission fee for bringing you that expensive chess set, that's your choice. You can live in your delusions that the product you bought is better than the ones other people have bought from other stores. That's your personal choice. However, when you make a universal claim about the superiority of the product you have bought, you do owe the audience a proof of your claim. So far you have failed them in this regard. So I see it my duty to remind the audience that you owe them something.You know why? Because I care about them and you don't.

You have nothing to educate me or the audience about, only lies and delusions.

I've bought from both. The quality is not noticeably different, particularly considering the steeply increased prices from HOS. 

On a personal level(and I won't make dumb statements insulting anyone,even in a tactical general way) I could care less who buys what! I definitely like all my "over 10" sets made by C.B. and the couple of sets made by RCM and EraRetro,etc......But my enthusiasm and belief that my NOJ set is a nice cut above all of these comes from owning the NOJ set and seeing the difference.

Shut up if you have not!