Where do people get these prices?

Sometimes I see an ebay listing for a chess set and have to wonder how they came up with the price.  Case in point:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Old-Vintage-Antique-Travel-Chess-Set/264009512665?hash=item3d783176.d9:g:vDwAAOSwu5ZbckyV

This is actually a small (either 2.25" or 2.5") Gallant Knight set.  On a good day (from a seller perspective) might go for $35 or thereabouts.   The 5" Gallant Knight sets (especially the rarer color variations) might go for this price point - but they are much rarer than this set which is actually pretty common.

The box is in good shape - usually those are beat and the lid either totally or partially separated.  But this one isn't a Gallant Knight box - probably a Lowe or Gits box from the same era.

I love the sellers detailed description

Just another cheap plastic set. It even has very visible mold lines. It is not woth more than 30 bucks.

If you want pieces to play chess with, yes, it wouldn't be worth more than $30. But the price asked may be correct if one happens to want to collect chess pieces, including this particular set. After all, it is from many years ago, and no doubt for many of those years, it was just a cheap plastic set, many of which were thrown out with the trash. So now, if one wants to revisit the history of the popular plastic chess sets, naturally doing so may be expensive.

If you look at the ebay history they just don't sell for that much - they are really very very common -  Gallant Knight made that line for around 30 years - and they cranked out lots of them.  I have bought many of them (I collect not only old chess sets but older briefcase compilations of game sets that are often missing the chess sets - Gallant Knights were often used in those so they make perfect replacements). 

They are nice sets - a good quality plastic with nice detail (I actually like the Gallant Knight sets more than the Players Choice Druekes - the knights and rooks are more to my liking - but I realize that is simply an opinion).  And even Drueke sets have mold seams.

The 5" Gallant Knight sets are particularly nice - they are  heavily weighted (a bit heavier than the Drueke Imperial set) and the pieces are a thick plastic shell so they have a nice heft to them.   Before the advent of the Players Choice Druekes in the mid sixties the 5" Gallant Knights were the way to go for good plastic tournament sets, One of Gallant Knight's biggest mistakes was to not introduce a 3.75" - 4" sets for tournament use.  Other than the 5" their biggest Staunton sets in that period were 3.25"  which were not quite adequate for tournament play.

Here is a closeup of part of a 5" set:

It is true that, for example, I have found a 5" Kingsway Plastics set for a lower price than that, so even for a vintage set, the price may be a bit on the high side.

NattyBumppo wrote:

As for that, I've noticed other companies making the same "mistake". Possibly back in 1960 or so, 5" sets were permissible for tournament play, and considered to be a reasonable size?

I played in tournaments from 1966 to 1970 and those 5" sets were pretty common - so either no one objected (which given the nature of some chess players is really really doubtful ^___^) or (as I suspect)  the rules were different back then.  Someone could probably email* the USCF - I looked (very)  briefly but couldn't find anything on the history of set size rules for tournaments.

The 3 5/8" Drueke Players Choice sets were very common in tournaments then - but I don't remember ever seeing any of the 5" Imperials in use - I think they may not have been made until after I quit playing in tournaments though.  I did get my first Imperial set new in 1976.

*I just did that!

The question really is not are they currently allowed* (I don't think any one is arguing that point) but whether back in the sixties they were allowed.  I did hear back from my inquiry to the USCF - they are forwarding it to the proper department,

A 5" set/board just doesn't take up that much space - they will easily fit on a standard card table with room to spare.   I have two (a Drueke Imperial) and  a red/white Gallant Knight set up on a very small library table in one of my outbuildings - they certainly don't need a garden to be used.    Even my 8" set (not I am afraid a very good one - but it is the largest I have) would be lost in our garden.

*The current rules were put in place on July 1, 2017. 

Nothing joking about the serious money the good  5" ones can bring.   And I kinda think we were  playing normal chess back then - we didn't use separate rules for the 5" sets despite the the apparently "massive" size.  We evenuseful for that used them for speed chess - actually kinda useful for that since you had to really work to knock pieces over in your haste - something that could (and did) easily happen with smaller and less stable sets.

But playing or owning one is pretty easily avoided for those who view them with trepidation.  

They do have treatments for acrophobia these days.  ^___^

OT - did anyone else like this fine fellow from the movie "Labyrinth"?

Here is my recent eBay find. It is a cased 3.25" Gallant Knight Set. Got it for $33.

For a moment there I expected the OP to be about the asking price of HoS and NOJ chess equipment.

ADDED: I saw the Kasparov-endorsed set from eBay, and I have not seen one since. They looked like this: