So many crappy wooden chess sets for sale - any recommendations??

OP's been gone 21 months.

It's alright someone else can benefit from the information.

House of Staunton is very reputable and so is TheChessStore.com.  I have purchased wood sets from both, and consider their products to be of comparable quality.  As you know they have nice wood chess pieces at many different price points.  For example, the "Exclusive Staunton" series of pieces from TheChessStore.com is very nice (IMO) for the price:

http://www.thechessstore.com/search/keywords/exclusive%20staunton

Does anyone have the HOS Grandmaster set (4 inch king)?  Should I buy this if I can get for $50 (regular around $100)?  thank you

I recently purchased a set (wood board + pieces) from thechessstore.com. A friend of mine also purchased the same set - the Exclusive Staunton series. We both are very pleased.  Quality set, good value.

https://thechessstore.com/chess-pieces/staunton-wood-chess-pieces/new-exclusive-staunton-chess-pieces/

House of Staunton is the go to spot if you want some great quality chess equipment. In addition, if you sign up for their newsletter, you get discount codes sent to you.

One of our members made a video review of it ...

Look here ---->> Grandmaster Series Chessmen - House of Staunton

I used to have the "Classic" Series, 4 inch King pieces from HOS.  This is a very nice Staunton wood set and at $59 an amazing deal.  They must be discontinuing it.  I recommend you get this set while they are still available at this price. Get the standard ebonized boxwood (black and natural).  I'm confident you will love it.

Also an excellent choice.  You will enjoy that set!

http://www.houseofstaunton.com/the-grandmaster-series-chess-pieces-4-0-king.html

Fellow chess set lovers.

I know there are many posts dedicated to best luxury chess sets on this site but for anyone in the market who is looking for a new luxury chess set, I can say "Indian Chetak 2 Staunton Chess Set" is the best. The set is not as expensive as a lot of other luxury sets that I own or are available out there. The Rosewood version I bought was at flat 50% off just over a year ago, with free shipping. Great value, even considering the fact that I live in US and shipping from India was free. This set plays and looks as nice or better than most of the more expensive sets. Despite the packaging, one pawn was broken but they lived up to their promise of lifetime replacement and replaced it very quickly. Very pleased with quality and customer service of chessbazaar. The set is nice and plays well. It is fun to play with, even though I don't want to use it as my only set. This set is also available at Hos but I certainly not interested in paying more than twice what I paid for the CB version.  

http://www.chessbazaar.com/the-indian-chetak-ii-customized-staunton-chess-set-in-bud-rose-box-wood-4-2-king.html?___SID=U

I recently purchased a luxury "Bold Chess" set from a company called Purling London. The chess pieces are triple-weighted and Staunton, and they are hand-carved and hand-lacquered. I'm very pleased with the quality - the chess pieces are really well done, in particular the knights - you can even see their teeth, that's how detailed the work is. Really like playing with it, feels very smooth and enjoyable.

https://purlinglondon.com/

They also make illuminated chess sets, which look absolutely amazing, but they are slightly more expensive unfortunately..

Well, they are quite expensive.

Looking at the pictures of the pieces they do look like a nice, standard, Staunton design. 

However, I have seen sets that sell for much less than 1/2 that price that look just as nice.