Does anyone on this forum have any stones bought from Kuroki Go Ishi Ten's outlet section? If so, are you satisfied with them, or do you wish you'd spent the extra money to buy more flawless stones?

For people who didn't buy them, but have played with shell stones with small scratches on them - do small scratches on stones scratch up the board? Worse, do they scratch your fingers?

Thanks; I'm trying to not spend a fortune on Go equipment, and these outlet deals seemed like pretty good deals, but they're not good deals if they interfere with other parts of the game.

It's a trade-off. I don't think the imperfections on the shell stones will hurt your board,
given that anything, including water, can cut the board with enough force.
Fingernails, not the shell stones, are more likely to scratch your board.
You can probably feel the imperfections on the shell stones with your fingertips,
but I don't think they will hurt you.

We use chipped glass and plastic stones all the time at our club; you just get used to it.

As for the cost of Go equipment, at least for me, it helps to amortize it over a long period of time.
(And by long I mean 100+ years, with good care, not only for one lifetime but also for future generations. )

I've never actually seen their outlet stones but from the photos the scratches shouldn't affect the board nor should you worry about your fingers being hurt. For me the "shape not matching our master stone" would be more annoying. The outlet items are quite a good deal. If you might buy a set of stones and bowls they have sets where the bowls are "standardized" items, i.e. they are not defective or seconds, which makes them an even better deal.

I have bought second class bowls from their outlet and could not find the fault that made them second class. So I am pleased with them.

Have not bought stones from them, though.

KGT's Outlet site says:
Our "Outlet Item" is sold at discount as they missed strict in-house quality standard.
Small scratch (There is NO deep flaw nor scratch.)
Imperfect shape (The shape does not perfectly match our Master Stone.)
Small damage and dirt on box or case

I do not interpret that disclaimer to mean their Outlet stones are scratched, I think it applies to wood items only,
I have purchased two sets of stones from KGT's Outlet. I could not detect anything—not a thing—that would have suggested why my stones were moved to the Outlet. They appear completely flawless to me so I assumed they were overstock or returned-unopened merchandise.

If you are planning to own premium go equipment, be sure to check KGT's Outlet for complete sets like this one:

Standard prices for the three items total more than 47,500Y and the Outlet has them in a group for 30,000Y. The shin-kaya board may be scratched, the karin-quince bowls may be scratched. Who cares? Your go equipment is meant to be played with; it's gonna get dinged up, the sooner the better!

I do not recall that I have ever seen a negative report about service or products from KGT in decades of comments posted on alt.go and Sensei's. I would not hesitate for a moment to buy anything from KGT's site. But be sure you carefully check the yen conversion and choose your shipping method. I had both sets of my stones shipped the cheapest way possible: ship. Took 30 days.

david boise ID

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.