Would someone here be able to tell me where I can get books about the game of go please? I tried to buy some from Kiseido but they told me that they won't sell books to stores in the USA. This is for a small family owned store. Thank you for your help.

Are you trying to get books to sell or just to buy books for your own?

Kiseido, Slate and Shell, Yutopian, and GoGameGuru are all options.

Also try Hinoki Press, Baduktopia, Tuttle, and Robert Jasiek.
Maybe you might be able to get the "Learn to Play Go" series from http://www.samarkand.net/ for your store.

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A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

You can also try Yellow Mountain Imports and Amazon Kindle e-books.

So you tried Kiseido's US contact details from their website:

KISEIDO
2255 - 29th St., Suite 4
Santa Monica, California 90405;
TEL: +1-800-988-6463; FAX: 1-310-578-7381;
email: info@kiseido.com

and they said no, without pointing you to a distributor?

Seems odd to me. I can understand them only selling by the truck load, and saying no to anyone who wants less than a truck load ( or pallet, whatever is their lowest unit ). I can't understand them not passing on the information of who buys truck loads, and then breaks up their pallets for distribution.

[If the reality is you are trying to buy a few books for your self and a buddy at discount, well... its a pointless conversation. ]

I've seen Kiseido books in bookstores in the USA. Try the main office in Japan: kiseido61@yahoo.com

My understanding about Kiseido is that they have an exclusive distribution agreement for the US with Yutopian, so it's possible you will need to go through Yutopian instead.

Thank you all for your helpful advice and suggestions. I've been checking all their websites.

Sorry that it wasn't clear but I'm trying to buy these books for our store. We have quite a lot of books about chess, bridge, poker, sudoku and so on, but not go. A customer who knows go advised us to get some books from Kiseido.

@PeterHB, yes I agree it is strange. Usually publishers are happy to sell their books so this is an unusual situation. The books were for the store and we would buy them by the box of course. This is what info@kiseido.com said when I emailed them:

//
Hi John:

Thank you for your interest of our products.

We are sorry to tell you that we don't accept wholesaler anymore.

Regards
katherine
//

@skydyr, I tried to call Yutopian using the number on their site (http://www.yutopian.com/Misc/Contact.html) and it surprisingly went through to the same person (Katherine) who I had already spoken to and emailed. She repeated that they wouldn't sell the books and hung up without any explanation. She might've been a bit mad that I had called her twice, but I didn't realize it was the same lady and the same company at first.

I double checked the phone number on the Kiseido site and it's the same. Who are these Yutopian people? Are they part of Kiseido? When the phone numbers were the same I assumed they were but your comment makes it sound like they're not. If anyone here knows someone who works at Kiseido, perhaps you could check whether they really don't want to sell their books?

I'll keep looking at the other options. Thank you all again.

This seems the most interesting reply. If gowan can name a specific example of a USA bookstore that sells Kiseido books, then rook could contact them to ask who is the distributor they get them from. Despite Kiseido being the best english language Go books, I've never seen them in a bookstore anywhere I've traveled to, but I've never been to the US.

When you try the Japan email address, try addressing Richard Bozulich directly. He is really low profile as far as the internet goes, but I have had one email from him in the distant past. He is polite, and as the boss as well as the bottle washer of Kiseido, he will have the final answer.

I guess Kiseido have been bitten in some way on the volume pricing to US wholesalers in the past, because you are not the first person to complain about this on these forums. The Kiseido answer last time was no too. It reminds me of the old adage -: You are the twentieth customer asking for those today, and I keep telling 'em, - "We don't stock those, there's no demand for them!".

Interestingly, http://gogameguru.com/ seems to have cracked this problem somehow. Don't know how. But I guess volume must be part of the answer.

The official distibutor for Kiseido in the US is Yutopian. That is why they are the same. I doubt you will be to make a deal with them as wholesale prices. Try some of the other publishers mentioned in this thread.

The bottom line is that you may need to buy them retail and mark them up.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I happen to be sitting about five feet from several thousand Kiseido and Yutopian books in the venders room at the US Go Congress. The ladies who are here representing both companies [who happen to be the owner's family] are out at the moment but I'll ask them tomorrow what the policy is on wholesale orders. Meanwhile, a representative of Baduktopia, publisher of the the highly regarded Level Up instruction books [translated from Korean] is also at the Congress. If you are interested in their products, I can give her your contact info before she leaves early Sunday.

chiwito

If the original poster or anyone else wants to contact me about any of this, my email is chiwito@chiwito.com.

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I'm always looking for any go publications that i don't have, in any western language. Wanna trade or sell some?

Thanks chiwito. Please let me know what they say.

Well, Brian, I was just sure that with an opening like this that you must be sitting at home in your office.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Rook, I thought I had answered this a while ago, but it appears not. Katherine suggested that you email her about ordering from both companies, and make it clear that you are a brick and mortar store looking to carry the books in inventory. She is leery of wholesaling to people she doesn't know because in the past some have been purely online businesses whigh compete directly with her retail online business. She is very nice in person, and I hope that with some discussion of your needs she can be more helpful than she was when you first contacted her.

Also, Baduktopia publishes a very good series of instructional books covering all phases of the game. Their rep at the Congress was very good to deal with -- gave me a very good price because I was buying a large number of books [trying to live up to Dr. Straw's comment]. I suspect that as they try to grow their business, they probably give good wholesale prices. I believe they are represented by a distributor here, possibly Yellow Mountain? Alternatively they probably have an English website you could google. I wouls recommend them. If you have trouble reaching them, contact me. At some point I need to get back in touch with their Congress rep on other matters, so I should be looking for her card wherever I misplaced it.

Chiwito

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I'm always looking for any go publications that i don't have, in any western language. Wanna trade or sell some?

The Baduktopia rep was Daniela Trinks, and she's not too hard to get a hold of. YM Imports does carry all of their books, but there might be some others as well.