Ultimate chess set

Hold on there, Mikey. These are words on a forum from people who are excited about the ultimate chess set piece style. I can request anything I want to. I'm not knocking on his door or PM'ing him insisting that he do what I want. He merely has to keep scrolling if he wants to avoid getting "distracted". Why don't you relax and try to avoid going full retard on a chess website forum.

Shelby I fully support whatever you do, as witnessed by my personal account of satisfaction from my purchase where I included pics. Cheers. 

Mike's comment was a little rude but I'm mostly in agreement.  Shelby has been trying (and failing) to sell a reissue of the Ultimate set for nearly a decade.  The thread started in Aug 2016 by saying "its been 5 years since we sold the set and they'll be available in 3 months".  

That did not happen.  He successfully got a solid mold from the factory but the color was wayyyyyy off.  He showed pictures of the sample pieces and every single person in the thread told him that the color was off.  He for some reason assumed the camera used by the factory was incorrectly displaying yellow and decided to ignore feedback from a statistically significant sample size of his customer base.

Now he's talking about ordering more but also simultaneously working on wood and metal versions that have no proof of demand in the market.  He can't even get a simple reissue right and he's talking about doing these high end versions. 

To use a figure skating analogy you probably shouldn't attempt a triple axel if you can't even ice skate.  Now you come in asking this guy who can't ice skate, that's already attemping the triple axel to attempt a lutz jump.  Focus on skating without falling first.  Emphasis on the focus part.

Wow, shots fired, but is your gun loaded? NO, its not, just a clicking sound, all noise, no bang. I mean, it seems you weren't a fan of the reissue color, but he sold them all, and now wants to do another reissue that is better, and throw in some other options. The thing is, he is there doing it, and doing fine, but you are claiming he isn't even in the game at all with your ice skating analogy? It doesn't fit reality- oh well, haters gonna hate

I don't think he did sell them all and selling 1500 sets in 4 years is nothing to write home about.  Also, I would be willing to bet there is a decent chunk of the customer base that bought the set thinking they would be a true reissue only to be disappointed by the color.  So your comment about selling through is irrelevant.  You see this on Amazon review all of the time.  "I've been buying x for years and then they changed the formula and now the product sucks."  Did those customers buy the product after the formula was changed?  Sure, but it was with the understanding that the product was equivalent to what they had bought before.  After that they will not buy again.  

I look forward to you not buying the new issue.  Instead you can buy the competition product.  Wait, there is no set competing with this one.

Shelby owes you nothing at all in this.  You are wrong in saying he gave the go ahead and approved the color.  When he did get the first set, all the white pieces were already made and they were in the middle of making the black pieces.

Also, do you know the minimum cost to get this set made, the first time with the molds?  Do you know the minimum cost to get this second, improved run?

To put this as an American football analogy, you are simply being an armchair quarterback.  You obviously are into the woulda, coulda, shoulda.  Nice try, but no cigar.

When did I ever say he owes me anything?  I was simply agreeing with the guy who thought it was a bad idea to request a bunch of different colors when the overwhelming majority of people simply want a reissue that seems to be extremely difficult to get right.  

"When he did get the first set, all the white pieces were already made and they were in the middle of making the black pieces."

Do you really believe the factory wouldn't ask for approval on the sample run before manufacturing 2,000 sets?  He approved the wrong color.  1000%.  No debate here.

"Also, do you know the minimum cost to get this set made, the first time with the molds?  Do you know the minimum cost to get this second, improved run?"

Not sure how this is relevant.

"To put this as an American football analogy, you are simply being an armchair quarterback.  You obviously are into the woulda, coulda, shoulda.  Nice try, but no cigar."

Its not armchair quarterback if you can look back in the thread and see all of the posts about how bad the color is BEFORE he approved manufacturing of the full run.  

I know, for a fact, that the factory, in China, did make all the white pieces first.  Shelby emailed a few of us pictures when he got them.  He also emailed us the color swatch they were supposed to use.  Of course it is a standardized number for the color.  And when I spoke with him, on the phone that same day, he told me about the white pieces being finished before he could veto the color.  I assure you that I am not making this up.

The cost of the molds and production minimums is indeed relevant.  This is not big business, selling one design of plastic Chess sets.  When the startup costs and first production cost well over $40,000, it takes time to recoup that investment when you are selling individual sets for around $30.  Yeah, this is armchair quarterbacking at its finest on your part, especially when you have the facts wrong.

Post #268.  He approved the wrong color to get it to market faster.  

You do realize that in #213, it is a picture China sent him, not Shelby having the pieces in hand.  You will note he also is showing the Pantone color it is supposed to be, which they made wrong.

Shelby did OK the picture thinking it was a camera variation, not the actual color which it turned out to be.  He also did not want to delay production too long.

Sure, it turned out more yellow than most all of us wanted, including me.  However once Shelby did try to change it, it was too late.  These are the facts.

Also, what are we to do?

Complaining gets you nowhere.  The new, improved version is about to arrive in the next day or so.  Yes, he is getting the one set first.  And it promises to be better in the build as well as color and finish work.

Well, we get one version at a time and it is quite some time between versions.  Shelby knew and knows that a good number of people, me included, do not like that yellow color.  Interestingly some do like it.  And we have seen at least one plastic set, from the past, that had pieces just as yellow.

I am not happy that Shelby listened to the majority and is making this new set’s white pieces an off white instead of the original color.  But Shelby is trying to please his customers.

Of course he is also having other parts of the sets improved by molding the weights in the pieces and having the felts be bigger.

However we all have to see how this new set turns out.  The manufacturer in China has the control even Shelby does not have.

My opinion is that Shelby and his company are paying enough so they should be able to demand satisfaction.  But that’s not the way it has turned out.  It seems this is still not big enough money to make the manufacturer stand up and take enough notice.

And you are complaining.  The color of this set was determined quite awhile ago and certainly cannot be changed now.  Also whether they have a metal and wood version made or not has nothing to do with the production of this plastic set.

Personally, I do not plan on buying either the metal or wood version.  The metal is too shiny and heavy for my playing tastes.  And I am very pleased with my wood Ultimate in Anjanwood from The Chess House.  But you don’t see me complaining about Shelby having them made, sheesh.

I look forward to seeing how this plastic version turns out.  Shelby said it is due in today via FedEx Express.  I know that the minute he gets it, with some extra pieces for cutting open, Shelby will be taking pictures and sharing.

This is all I was saying.  

So, Shelby communicates with the manufacturer in China until receiving the replies he wants.  There are delays in production and delivery for various reasons, including the COVID-19 shutdown.  You actually want Shelby to constantly focus on this production, full time?!?  Please get real.

You gotta work on your reading comprehension.  The debate was whether he should be working a reissue AND a wood set AND a metal set AND red pieces.  Our argument was that it should be only the reissue until that is finished properly.  

Actually, you are the guy that can’t read, remember?

Someone suggested the red color, but Shelby said no to that.

The metal, wood, and plastic sets all come from different manufacturers.  Are you really trying to tell the guy how he should operate his business?  And you are doing this over a $35 plastic set?  The correct term is, sheesh.

I’m not even getting close to moving let alone worked up.  I am actually laughing.

Yeah, that was a great video.  This set looks like a winner.  And you said, in the video, you were still going to have them do a few things to insure the set was as good as it can get.  Count me in for 4 sets when they get here.  I’ll keep one and gift the others to friends and students.

Hello friend 😃

How do you guys test these ways of securing the weights? Throw them in a clothes dryer for an hour and see if it's still intact? They look great by the way.

I quoted the above to point something out.  You, KnightOfReyn, were not complaining or telling him that stuff.  Unfortunately, you were seeing my comments regarding Snooper420.  He was critical of Shelby and his efforts quite awhile back in this thread.  He also did tell Shelby that he was running his business all wrong.  And you see him going at Shelby again because the encapsulated pieces are not what the Snooper guy expected.

Shelby had told us of the new color and other improvements a relatively long time ago.  As you have seen and agreed this set looks fine.  The way the weights are encapsulated in the pieces now will work fine.  But Shelby still wants to tweek it a bit more to insure high quality.

And I believe he is going to retail the set around $35 or so.  This is not expensive at all, considering the looks of the set.