Ultimate chess set

So then the V3s are made in white. And people complain about the shade of white. LOL But hey, it's all good. He got 50 pages of free online exposure, over SIX YEARS because of it. 

That's true, but I'm not sure if it tells the entire story. He couldn't sell the remainder of the discounted butters but it's possible that's because they were the V2 weight design which was much more likely to rattle than the new design. Speaking only for myself, as a butter owner (as well as wood ultimates and V3 appliance white ultimates), I would have bought another set (at least!) of butters with the V3 weighting system in a heartbeat.

I do like the proprietary weight system of V3. The best in the business. I also have the wood versions but need a black army to complete all the color schemes. Great set.

FYI: Today's Amazon Prime Day Deal. 

The Ultimate V3 is $43.99 Free 2-day shipping. Free returns.
That's about 20% off the current retail price of $55. 

**UPDATE** Prime Day Sale is over. The price is back up to the regular $55 for this amazing set.

Launch price for the set V3 was US$44.99 when I bought them on Amazon USA last year.

Great deal considering the free shipping is thrown in and 2 days at that. 

SybotCB,

I was thinking that they were going to tar and feather me when the V.2 came out in yellow.  Someone even called it "An Affront before GOD".  Pretty heavy criticism.  

It was only when the streamers really started using them because they show up so well on the video that these started getting popular.  People who bought them and set them up on the right color boards knew it was the right color...but the common player they saw the yellow and they broke out the pitchforks.  

But if you don't take chances...you don't make money.  Now the darn things are in high demand.  Demand high enough for us to make another run of 3000 pieces?  That I do not know.  Lotsoblots might be right...keeping people talking about this is good for the brand.  It brings more people into the conversation.  

I am just happy I have brought back a classic and even made it better.  Thinking about making a video on the set showing the changes and how we made it better.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Thanks

Shelby lohrman

American Chess Equipment

What is the best wooden board to get to go with the sheesham/boxwood version of the ultimate chess pieces?

Also, any update on the possibility of the wood ultimate pieces coming with extra queens?

After seeing the positive reviews and the great interaction of Shelby here in the forums i'm sold on picking up a set of Ultimates.

I couldn't find any online Australian vendors with the set. So far it seems amazon.com shipping to Australia seems to be the only real option. Shipping works out to be half the cost of the set itself

Anyone know of the best way to get some Ultimate v3's in Australia?

Stahburst,

What is Amazon going to charge you?  I should be able to ship it from my shop competitively.

thanks

Shelby Lohrman

ChessSet.com

Many would say that the best solid wood board currently being made in USA is the JLP board from ChessHouse....I would tend to agree...

https://www.chesshouse.com/collections/jlp-hardwood-chess-boards/products/21-hardwood-players-chessboard-jlp-usa

For a more affordable and very good custom made solid wood board, I would recommend ColoradoWoodWorker (Brad Borkowski) on ETSY....

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ColoradoWoodWorker?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1073679478

Brad made this board for me, which I like very much...squares are 2.25 inch.  Squares are Brazilian cherry & maple.  Apron is walnut.  Pieces are GM Blitz set from ChessBazaar with 3.75 inch King.  I particularly appreciate the contrast between the cherry squares and the pieces...

I agree that the fit and finish of the JLP products is outstanding. I've only ever seen three and played on one, but all of them were PERFECT. The boards reflect the expectations one can put on a $400+ board. If you pay that much for a board (or pieces or anything, really), it should be really, really good. Superlative, even. 

Brad's boards on the other hand reflect their price -- and I say this as the completely-satisfied owner of five of his boards (two borderless, two Towers, and a Drueke). It's hard to find much of anything online about JLP's setup, but stuff as precision as JLP's is made with big machines. BIG. Ungodly-expensive CNC magical nonsense that is perfect. every. single. time. Brad's workshop appears to be his garage or shed, and making chess boards sounds like his hobby or second form of income. His boards show that. On one of my boards the squares of two adjacent files are juuust a smidge off of one another, literally a couple tenths of a millimeter. Visible? Sure. Noticeable? Eh, you really have to be inspecting the board closely to find the flaw. My Drueke-style one has just a teensy bit of undercut in one kerf, again so barely there I have to look for it to find it -- but it's there.

And I don't mean this as a criticism at all. Brad's work is beautiful, he'll happily do custom work, he's a joy to communicate with, and his boards are always well-packed and arrive in excellent condition. Is his work perfect? No, but I don't care even a little because they're beautiful and affordable. As I said, you have to have a very picky eye for detail to find any flaws. And at half of the price of a JLP (or in the case of Brad's Tower boards when compared to the JLP Stack, a LOT less than half), unless you're really, really picky -- which is perfectly fine when spending this kind of money -- his boards are a wonderful choice.

Oh, and @RussBell, that board is gorgeous, especially with those pieces!

NB: Re-reading, I kinda feel like I'm dissing Brad's work, and I totally don't mean to at all. As a woodworker of moderate skill and experience myself, I have neither the tooling nor the expertise to even approach the quality of work he does. And as I mentioned above, I've got five of his boards already and am eagerly awaiting any word on his decision to make a folder or box folder, as has been discussed here in the CB&E forum. 

I want to echo what @TimmyCorkery has said about the comparison between ColoradoWoodWorker and JLP/ChessHouse.

Brad (CWW) makes an absolutely wonderful board, definitely a quality product and one to cherish and pass down. It will be near perfect, and 99% of us will likely only notice minor things, at most.

JLP is world class. It’s a Rolls-Royce, as compared to Brad’s Audi or Mercedes. Absolutely, 100% spot on, and the finish is a joy to experience.

I own both, and recommend both to anyone I meet. If you have the budget for a JLP, then definitely pick one up.

Hi Shelby, 

Amazon.com are charging USD 25.07 for AmazonGlobal Expedited Shipping (the cheapest shipping available and takes about 2 weeks) to Sydney Aus. 

Happy to go with whever is most practical, whether it is Amazon or yourself, i understand the set is decently heavy so i cant imagine shipping to be super cheap anyway.

Cheers

$25 for overseas shipping is actually a bargain. One company I know charges $70 for a similarly heavy plastic set.

Yeah, my main hope was an Australian vendor for the set. But if Amazon (or Shelby) are the reasonable options then i'm happy to pay the shipping.

Wow, $70 for shipping is crazy though!

With the sheer incomprehensible amount of shipping Amazon does every second of the day, the low $25.07usd shipping price doesn't surprise me. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, does China and India governments subsidize export shipping? Is that how companies in those countries can ship stuff out for so cheap (or free). But if you need to ship it back into the said country, it costs an arm and a leg?

The issue is not whether the V2 butter set will sell.  There will always be buyers who like that set and that color.  So it will sell.  The point is how well the V2 will or has sold compared to the other editions, V1 and V3.   From what I recall the only knock on the original V1 set was the issue of loose weights.  The V1 set was otherwise extremely popular and a best seller - I'm not aware of any hue and cry over the color of the V1 set.   Likewise the V3 set is very popular (the loose weight problem having been fixed) and has sold very well.

Based on all of the commentary in this forum thread from the beginning I think it is clear that the most popular color of all Ultimate versions was that of the original V1 set.  On that basis I believe that if Shelby were to bring out another edition (call it V4) with the SAME PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHTING SYSTEM OF THE V3 but in the EXACT same colors as the original V1 set, it would outsell any of the prior editions, including the V1.

Just to throw a wrench into the color discussion, I have to say that, having been using the V3 "appliance white" ultimates on the wood-grained ultimate tournament board (vinylpad) for the past week or so everyday, I have fallen in love with a color that I found at most tolerable before. I've shared this (poorly centered and amateurishly created) photo before so apologies, but I think the combo is great and it's surprisingly given me a totally different take on the V3 color.

Does that mean I wouldn't buy a V3 no-rattlers butter set? No way, that color just hits all the right notes for me and I'd be lined up to buy a set or two immediately! But what we have now is great, too, and I absolutely prefer it to V1 at this point.

PS: Might be sort of obvious, but the appliance white V3 color actually looks better (to my eyes) than the V2 butters on the Red White and Blue US Chess Championship vinylpad board.

Nice combo @lotsoblots! IMO, the "beauty" of the v2 Butters charm is that they were accidentally ugly as sin. Similar to how a garish looking holiday Christmas sweater is fun but unintentionally cringey at the same time. Hah!