Hi everyone!

I currently have a "toys" goban and stones, and a nice pair of bowls and after deciding coming back to Go I want to endulge myself with a nice equipment (with my tight budget). I'd use it often and my budget is low so I need something nice but afordable and useful. Then when I won the lottery maybe I could go for the really nice equipments. I'm not updated with the Goshops or market so I only took a look at GGG.

What I want -> A tabletop board around 5.5-6cm, "glass" stones to keep it in budget but that fits with the goban, and maybe I'd need to buy another bowls (cause I don't think mine would fit sizze 36 or so stones).

ABout the Goban: The deluxe set is out of range for me, so in GGG I could go to the Agathis, the multi-piece shin-kaya or the veermer shin-kaya.
Stones: Since the board is gonna be 6cm, I think it'd be more pleaseant to play with big stones, so size 36?
Bowls: Pretty sure my bowls wouldn't fit my new stones, so I suppose I had to buy another ones.

So, sets are the best value/money options. But there's only the pro set, that's very nice but I think I'm not too confident about the painted surface of the agathis board. Sadly, being the only "set" afordable for my budget, if I go for the two toher options I0'd need to buy them piece a piece and it would be around 5€ more expensive for the veener+stones+bowls and 65€ more for the multi shin-kaya+bowl+stones.

What do you think about all of this? Is it worth it to pay more for the veener "combo" than for the pro set? I don't think so. And 65€ more for the shin-kaya multipiece?? I just like the "natural wood" look of the shin-kaya but I've heard agathis and painted surface has it's advantages. Maybe there's another place where I could check for sets and gobans? (I live in Spain btw).
Does anyone has one of the boards and want to tell me if they're happy with them?

Thx for your time and I hope I can make up my mind soon and upload some photos of my new set

I recently purchased the deluxe set from GGG.

The Shin Kaya board looks very nice, but I find it quite soft and easy to dent if you are not careful with it. I heard agathis board is harder, so it's probably easier to care for.

As for the stones, their size 36 glass stones are not uniform in shape. Some of them sit tilted on the board. I think this is quite common due to how the stones are manufactured. You do get about 10 spares so you can toss the ones that are more deformed. I also did not like how the black stones gets scratched on the side and started showing white marks. I am going to be replacing these with slate and shell stones.

The ashwood bowls that came with the set look very nice, but aren't polished inside (there are some rough bumps). I put a soft cloth inside each one for cushioning. The set I got also have slightly different sized openings so the lids aren't as interchangeable (If I swap the lids, one of them will sit very loose). I believe I received the size 16 bowls, it is barely large enough to hold size 36 stones. If you ever plan to get anything larger than 36, they will not work.

In conclusion, if I knew what I know now, I would have probably spent a little more on a multi-piece real Kaya board, and get a better pair of bowls/stones from Japan. Yunzi stones also seems like a good option if you are tight on cash, but I wasn't able to find the high quality ones that ships to the US.

Kuroki Goishi has a "beginner set" for 195 EUR/220 USD.

http://shop.kurokigoishi.co.jp/en/item/453

Slate and shell stones, bowls, and a shin kaya board.

Shipping will be a little expensive, but I think for the amount of money you're looking to spend, its an option to consider.

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