Old go set for sale

[jala]

Hi, I inherited a go set from my father, it's about 60 years old. It's in great shape, the black stones are slate or granite, the white ones are shell. I'd like to sell it, so if anyone is interested or has suggestions on how to go about it, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!

[tchan001]

You should consider posting photos of your set for the consideration of potential buyers.

[jala]

I tried, but it would only let me post one image.

[billywoods]

Adverts on this website generally have decent success. You should post them in this forum. You should be able to post more than one image - at least, other people do, somehow - perhaps you can ask them for advice if it's still not working.

Some generally useful things to tell us:

• Is the set complete (up to maybe a few missing stones)? That is, does it have a full-size 19x19 board, about 180 stones of each colour, and two bowls? Please provide photos of them.
• What's the board made of (if you know)? Does it fold? Is it a table board (thin) or a floor board (thick, probably with legs)?
• Where are you? Where would you ship to, and roughly how much would it cost? (Or, at least, how heavy is the set?)
• How much are you charging? (Roughly.)

You can always ask us for advice, of course - I'm not sure how sound it is for a seller to ask a buyer how much things should cost, but the people around here are a good bunch, and very knowledgeable about things like stone and board quality. Reasonable prices will very hugely depending on the quality of the set. Of course, you can look around in the forum I linked to above to see what previous sellers have sold and for how much.

[jala]

Okay, this time I was able to attach three photos. It's a folding board. The stones are all there.

[Koroviev]

What country are you in? How much?

[Bill Spight]

Thanks for the pictures. One thing you need to do is show the thickness of the shell stones. That can make a big difference in price.

From what I have seen, it looks like a typical amateur home set of the time. The black stones look to be slate, and the white stones look to be Mexican shell, from the yellowing. It looks like the bowls are plastic. It would have been cheap in US$ at the time because of the fixed exchange rate to make Japanese exports inexpensive. A more reasonable price, new, would have been something like $30 in 1960 dollars, unless the stones are thicker than I think.

You can probably find comparable sets advertised today in Japan. I would do some research before setting an asking price. Some years ago I got a terrific deal on a kaya go board with legs from a local importer. Comparable boards were advertised for at least four times as much in Japan. At the time I guessed that it had been sold by someone who had inherited it and did not realize its true value.

[jala]

Thanks, Bill, that's helpful.