Ultimate chess set

After years of chess inactivity, I dug out my old Ultimate Set that was hardly ever used.  I believe I bought the set maybe 15 years ago.  The color of the white (yellow) pieces is starting to fade or wear off.  I also have maybe 5 or 6 pieces with the weight clicking.  However, I don’t see a huge difference with the color.  

Love the HOS Marshall!  I have the same.  I'd upgrade to Ultimate if the next run works out.

My guess is that half sets in multiple colors would be prohibitively expensive.  Volumes would need to go way up, probably higher than the demand which exists for a premium plastic set.  

The good news for ACE is that this set evokes such passionate responses.  It's rare to have a product which does that, and it means there is room to run, especially as a new generation is introduced to the set.  I'm sure some folks feel bitterly disappointed, coming so close to something they really wanted, but having it fall short. 

Big Lew, maybe not everyone sharing feedback is a man, and even if they are, might be better not to reinforce gender stereotypes.  

Lol what?  You get samples and you give feedback on what you want changed.  Then the manufacturer gives you revised samples and you rinse and repeat until you get to the specs that you want.  Its not rocket science.  Shelby posted pics of the samples and 90% of the thread said they looked atrocious, but he chose to ignore the customer feedback.  He said yes to the 1st or 2nd iteration of the samples because he thought "it was just the camera".  Lol logic I guess.

I look forward to the Chess set YOU get produced and sold.  Obviously you show you can do a better job at it so go ahead.

You have to deal with China. Have you ever? The mins are huge and you sometimes have to go through a rep besides. You have to prepay for something like this.  I know I used to sell poker supplies, chips, cards, and books. The chips I inquired till I was "blue in the face" and left it up to a vendor who bought 100,000 chips at a time since I could not compete or had the deep pockets. The cards made in USA and poker books I could compete with.  But anything made in China is tough, not as easy as you think.

Most chess vendors here in the USA let people like Shelby deal with the Chinese then buy wholesale off of him. That is because they do not want to go through the same thing he does.

I never said it's easy, but I sure as hell wouldn't give the go-ahead for thousands of sets to be manufactured if my sample wasn't up to spec.  

You must have missed where the samples arrived, Shelby emailed them, and they had already completed all the white pieces.

No one was that stupid to accept the wrong color on the samples.

You're wrong.  He proudly posted pics of the samples in this thread and then after the backlash about the color he said "I already gave them the go-ahead to move forward with the run".  So he got pictures of the samples, saw that they weren't the same color as the sample he provided, attributed the  color discrepancy to a camera issue, didn't provide any feedback to the manufacturer, gave them the go-ahead any way in order to rush product to market, and here we are.  Bad business.  Plain and simple.  

Lol why would you pay for something you didn't order?  

Yes, I look forward to you creating a Chess set design and then working with such a company and get the product delivered perfectly, the first time.  Let us know when we can expect to be able to buy your sets...

@ Snooper69 Stop it. Man up and quit crybabying about the color. If you don't like it don't buy it. It is just a plastic set. You keep calling Shelby a moron. Yet, a real gentleman at a tournament wouldn't complain about the color. He would just play with it and not let it bother him. If someone did complain, I would have a lesser opinion of that person even if he did go to Harvard! I would think he is a crybaby at best, and a MORON at worst. I would have no problem playing with that set. Heck, I even like red pieces too. I even own the original Ultimate set blue and yellow. I like it and I'm grown up enough use it. So what if the pieces are yellow! Don't buy it, and be gentlemanly enough to not complain about some one who does buy it, or even uses it at a tournament. Your constant complaining and insults to Shelby, put you in a poor light, not the owner of ACE.

Pretty harsh but fair.  Shelby for some reason continues to conflate white and cream.  No one is asking for white.  They want it to be the original color.  No one wants urine.  Its funny how he is so fixating on differentiating his pieces from the rest of the market that he'll literally make them the color of bodily waste in order to do so.  People aren't buying the Ultimates for their unique color; they're buying them because of the solid and cool looking design.  The design of other plastic sets suck.  The Ultimates look cool and are heavy-duty.  That's why people will buy them.  

I would like to add a thank you to Snooper69.  Thank you for demonstrating that even a Harvard education does not preclude one from being a moron or fool.

Shelby -

Based on your comments above, it seems you had asked the China manufacturer to match the Pantone 127 U color swatch.  Is this true?  If so, I submit that this is the essential reason for the yellow color of the current pieces.  The 127 U color swatch does not come close to matching the color of your original Ultimate pieces.  In fact the 127 U is a strong yellow variant.  This can be clearly seen in the photos posted by Kenardi in this forum thread on 17 Nov 2017 of an original Ultimate rook placed adjacent to the P 127 U color swatch.  See also my post of 18 Nov regarding Pantone colors which immediately follows the Kenardi post.

Wow, didn't know this had become such good value. I'm grabbing the popcorn people. I don't know exactly what went down and what didn't, but I wouldn't have accepted the colour the way it is now. Butter is a kind word to describe it.

On another note, I would be interested in one of these sets if the light side becomes cream coloured and all weighting issues are fixed. 40-50 USD seems like a fair price range to me for a quality plastic set.

I guess none of you besides Shelby ever have to deal with a Chinese company. You do realize every company in China is partially owned by the Chinese government, try to order 2K chess sets without pre-paying for them. Go ahead and ask them, they will laugh in your face, good luck.  All these experts on how to make a chess set and none, not one person, has come forward and started the project themselves. Believe me, no one makes a plastic chess set intending to get rich off of it. Shelby lives for Chess and it is a labour of love.  He carries on the company that Dewain Barber started to promote scholastic chess.  

Let's stop the personal attacks. 

I am a certified US Chess TD.

From the Official US Chess Rules of Chess:

40A. Material. Pieces should be made of plastic, wood, or possibly a material similar in appearance.

U.S. Chess Federation. United States Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess, Sixth Edition (Kindle Location 4054). Diversified Publishing. Kindle Edition.

And:

40D. Color. Pieces should be the colors of naturally light and dark wood (for example, maple or boxwood and walnut or ebony) or approximations of these colors, such as simply white and black.

U.S. Chess Federation. United States Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess, Sixth Edition (Kindle Locations 4065-4066). Diversified Publishing. Kindle Edition.

I am ashamed of you, Snooper69.   You completely failed to read the rules.

Note that there is no mention of the light colored pieces either being Cream or White.

Instead it says the pieces should be the color of naturally colored wood.  I have seen many wood pieces that have a distinct yellow color to them.

So, you are dead wrong on that.

Next, the vast majority of plastic sets sold have the light pieces being a natural color or a cream color that is definitely not White.  I don't know what area you consult but you are flat wrong in your claims of White being the only color that will maximize sales.

Also, dealing with the China manufacturers, I think you are talking out of your hat.  Unless you can produce a signed agreement where  a manufacturer will guarantee the molded-in weights and the billiard cloth bottoms at the low price you say it can be, you are completely full of baloney.  You know, baloney the standard lunch meat at Harvard?

You need to quietly slink back out of the room on this discussion and perhaps people will not notice what a blustering fool you truly are.

Is that the best you have?  Sorry, you just do not cut it.  Once again, just slowly back/slink out of the room and people might not notice your imbecility.

And in your case it is, “baloney”, not “bologna”.  Look it up...