The Most Expesive Chess Set You Bought

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/jaques-style-ebony-pieces  This is mine. I paid around 150.00 shipped from Legend Products around 1993. Its a decent Jaques Clone IMO. No base cracking & Lead Weighted.

Why not copy the pictures from that thread and post them here?

Hi Frank, Mine is also catalogued in a forum. It is the Best Chessmen Ever BCE Tournament Stage 1 Eastern set, priced at 149.99€ (that's currently $169.32 USD), DHL shipping included.

Read more here: http://www.chess.com/blog/SirBenjamin/best-chessmen-ever 

How is this logical when you can spend thousands of dollars to remain a patzer with a x-thousand dollars chess set? ;)

The most expensive set I bought is the set I never admire/play with/had great disappointment in/ regardless of the price. The one set that comes to mind more than any other set is my 4" red dyed Dubrovnik set from CB that to this day still bleeds as the stain was never PROPERLY APPLIED and/or sealed. All customers of sets should have been sent replacemet sets and an apology for screwing up as they did. Yes they argued for months that there was nothing wrong with the sets it was all us and then let you buy another set of your choice for 30% off which is no big deal, as the Holidays usually bring at minimum a 20% to 30% discount anyways. No other set I own does the stain come off be it black/brown/red/or anything else. 

Also spraying it to seal it is not an option for me as my lungs are highly sensative to any chemical spary no matter what it is. 

Okay my rant is over. 

Mike, I hear your pain & anguish.! They should have replaced the Red pieces for you when they fixed the problem.! I am not going to buy from Chess Bazaar any more. I am stoked already with Chess Sets up the Wazoo. There is no need for another Chess Set for me as I am happy with all the sets I have.!

$80 for my CB Liberty set which I just emailed about returning... Those $25 german peices I got from chesscafe before they folded are seeming like they might be the winners overall. 

This is a good point Mike brings up about expensive.  Something that costs less to buy might end up being the more expensive.

The most money I have spent on a Chess set is for the Noj, Best Chessmen Ever, Stage 2, Eastern with stainless bases.

I am a buggar about not spending more money than I need to on any item.  Yeah, I'm always looking for that sale or discount.  So the most retail expensive set that I actually paid less for than the BCE is the HoS Morphy Series, 4.0" in Blood Rosewood.

The most expensive set I ever bought, using Mike's definition, was on the original version of the HoS Royale Series set.  Frank told me later that this was not a Frank Camaratta designed set, and the quality agreed.  It was crappy.  So, I gave it to my sister's husband that liked it.  He was not a serious chess player at all and kept the set on display, on a shelf on a wall.

By the way, the current Royale series by HoS looks quite different and kind of nice, although I am not motivated to own one.

Boy, with m_liguori and wiscmike, I am wondering about CB.  I never have had the chance to buy one of their sets because I already owned or didn't want or they were out of stock at the time I was looking at their site.

Yes, Mike I am a bit in disbelief that CB didn't do something other than the lame 30% off a new set you could give them more money for and keep, live with or discard that defective set.

Yes, I think the minimum they should have done was to replace the red pieces of the set.  And if there would be a concern of the white and red pieces not matching in detail, they should have simply replaced the whole set, at no charge.  This is what HoS, The Chess House, Your Move Chess and Games, and pretty much all other chess set retailers would have done with those pieces bleeding as they did.

Like 9kick9, I am just about filled to the brim with Chess sets.  I will be full, maxed out, busting at the seams, or whatever once I receive the Noj GM Pavasovic set I have on order.  So, I really don't need to order any more sets.  Now watch, up will come a set that I just have to have...

Regardless, I see no reason to buy from CB at this time.  People have said how they sell quite a chess set for less money.  Well I recently have purchased and seen sets from The Chess Store and Wholesale Chess, to name a couple, that are just as lowly priced as CB and are indeed a very nice quality.

I bought a Dubrovnik Set from Chess Bazaar & I must say it is Top Notch.! I ordered it in Sheesham & Boxwood though. I only collect sets that I like to play games with & I have enough sets to last me quite a while as in 200 years or more.

My disappointment with the Red Dubrovnik set from CB was the color bleeding. It was not with the carving or the weight or the baise on the pieces.  I am sure their bud rose wood Dubrovnik set is very nice as GNM tells me it is as is their sheesham set. 

I have the Frank Camaratta signature set from House of Staunton, which retails at $2000. Of course, you have to throw a couple of discount codes, a friendly chat with Mr. Camaratta and a dash of holiday spirit into the mix to arrive at the real price, but anyway, still my most expensive set.

Oh, I am sure they produce a lot of nice chess sets.  I certainly don't mean to run CB down.  It's just that whenever I have looked for a set to buy in the last 6 months or so, I have never been moved to get one from there for various reasons.  None of those reasons has been a lack of quality.

In fact the only reason I ordered my red Dubrovnik from Noj is because CB diid not have them available and there was no sign that they would, relatively soon.

Kick, why are you returning the Liberty Series set?

And, just how many sets do you have?

Personally, I find that I will be or am maxed out at 15, yikes.

KIck isn't the one returning the Liberty set. I would also like to know why. I bought one and it is a very nice set, I like the bigger pawns much better than the HOS even though I bought one from them too. The pawns in the HOS set are a little too small for me, not taking away anything from their originality, just too small.

Of course you are right, Mike.

I should have asked m_liguori why he is returning the Liberty set to CB.

There is an HOS set (doesn't include a board) for $24,000. Gorgeous. Unfortunately, the pieces are ebony and ivory. Would never purchase due to the ivory.

So $23 is my most expensive...but I don't feel terrible about myself.

£25 board and pieces, not weighted or anything, king about 2.5 inches, some 20 years ago.

HoS uses mammoth ivory. Nothing wrong about that?

I haven't seen the set you're talking about.

The staining is poor on the black pieces, blotchy in some areas and missed/rubbed off in others. Some major nicks/indentations, and wobbly weights. 

I've seen lots of good reviews of the set on here, and I'm happy to hope that mine was just fluke. I love the look and right now they are the only game in town making them. 

The most expensive set I own is a British Chess Company reproduction by HOS that I bought at auction on eBay back in 2013 for $320.

Stock photo:

Although styled like the 1936 Nottingham set, the metal plaque that came along with the set identifies it as a "BCC Royal Series 4.25" King - Antiqued Boxwood & Genuine Ebony - Entered Number 51". Which is slightly smaller and lighter than the 4.4" Nottingham set currently selling on the HOS website. My set is actually closer to the 4.3" height of the original BCC king.

I only saw another one or two of these sets offered on eBay shortly after buying mine, which leads me to believe that they only had 50 or so of the antiqued 4.25" sets made up; afterwards they decided to upscale to a heavier set with the 4.4" king. It doesn't cost them much more to make, and they can get a for higher price for the larger set, typically an extra $100 retail.

Here's the BCC original, circa 1890-92.

I too have acquired way too many chess sets in the last couple of years. I've sold off 3-4 sets, given another 3-4 sets away, and I still have 22 sets with 3" kings or larger!

To put things in perspective, these sets are spread out over seven different board sizes, from 1.75" to 2.5", which works out to about 2-4 sets for each different size board.

I'm not too crazy about the antiquing of the boxwood pieces, but the ebony pieces are exquisite, with just a hint of dark brown streaking visible in a couple of the pieces, which tells me that these pieces have not been stained.

By recasting my expectations, based solely on how the pieces look, the boxwood pieces could almost pass for pecan. My mom had a pecan dining room set whose color is a near perfect match to these pieces, which look brighter in the daylight. And shinier now that I've polished them with Renaissance Wax.

My pieces:

You're contributing towards the exploitation of poor mammoths. They may be extinct one day. For shame!