Hello everyone!

I'm new to Go so I've been mostly studying on my computer or just playing games on my smartphone but I finally decided to take a look at some Go sets.
I figured I could just buy a cheap foldable goban from Amazon jp. I've been going back and forth on some models when I decided to look at some secondhand sets at Yahoo Auction Japan. There were a lot of different kinds of gobans being auctioned so I felt a little overwhelmed but I just looked through and found some floor gobans that were in my price range. Basically I didn't want to spend so much on the goban because I'm still a beginner. I bought this one for about 4000 yen which was about the same price as the cheap foldable Go sets with plastic stones and bowls. It's in good condition I think, compared to the ones available on y!auction. No cracks just some scratches and dents. The stones included are hamaguri (clamshell) + nachi and the bowls are made from keyaki (Zelkova wood)..But because it's from a regular recycle shop (secondhand store) they don't really specify what kind of wood the goban is...In the description it just said it's a solid wood.

I wonder if anyone here had any idea? Here's some pictures from the seller.

I'd love to hear what you guys think.

I also saw these really nice marble go stones + containers. They looked really different from the usual ones I see here in Japan so I bid on them but there were a couple of determined buyers who drove the price past my budget. During the last few minutes it went from my bid of 1400 yen to 11,000 yen.

EDIT: oops the pictures were too small...

Welcome to GO and the site!

That is a great deal for 4000Yen, about 40 dollars or so, I am amazed. The stones and board both look beautiful and are in very good condition. I like the idea of used board, and that someone enjoyed playing on the board before me.

I am not one to make a guess from pictures of the type of wood. But I think you have a set to enjoy for years to come. Thanks for sharing the pictures. The marble GO bowls are quite unique and attractive.

Now can you find me such a great deal? Lol

Enjoy

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Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

But US$ ~103 is still a good deal, methinks.

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

Thank you Tony! Yes, it was such a great deal!

I like second hand things actually. I think they have a lot of character and it makes me wonder what kind of history it has. Although here in Japan, they have an aversion to 2nd hand goods...People don't really like to say they have recycled things. Usually poor uni students or young people who've just started working are the ones who buy most of them. I myself bought a gorgeous coffee table with really heavy and nice wood in great condition for only 1000 yen. Heck even my HD tv is 2nd hand (I didn't buy it though..my friend gave it to me when he moved to Honshu lol)

The good thing about that though is that 2nd hand things here are pretty much in good condition. I've rarely had a seller try to dupe me into buying a product in bad condition when he said otherwise. Usually if it's in bad condition, they will tell you straight out.

If you take a look here: http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?auccat=&p=%B0%CF%B8%EB&tab_ex=commerce&ei=euc-jp there's a lot of great deals! But sadly they don't ship outside of Japan..I'm not sure if it's everybody but mostly I've seen them only cater to domestic addresses. I think you can use a third party service to have them order and ship it out to you though.

I think so too! But unfortunately I missed the last five minutes of that auction because I was in a "battle" myself with the goban set (the auction end time was like a minute apart between those two) XD and also the go bowl lid had a broken handle that they just repaired...I wasn't really keen on that idea.

Anyway I'm going to keep a look out for any nice/unique designed go equipment and get my revenge lol

I've had some luck buying items via https://www.jauce.com -- and a lot of fun browsing the various sets, stones and boards. The site is basically a translation, payment, and shipping portal for Yahoo auctions/Ebay Japan. There are fees for funds transfer, for each auction won, processing, and shipping, but for the most part they are quite reasonable. Just don't bid on a traditional floor goban without considering the shipping!

I bought something through https://www.jauce.com without any problems. Like fireproof says though there's a lot of fees involved on top of the initial cost. Shipping to their office, fees for handling the payment money transfer, etc. They'll also repackage the item to make sure it's economically packed for international transfer (and will arrive safely) if you want - again for a fee.

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I am John. John-I-Am.

Thank you both for the tips.... It is tempting. I also like the used stones, I wonder who played before with them, your not the first to enjoy using them.

A friend of mine, here in town, mother in law recently bought a house. It used to be owned by a now deceased professor. It came with a folding travel GOBAN and some very worn down shell and slate stones. I wonder if he played or did he buy it as an antique. I cannot believe he could have played that much to have worn down the stones like that. I would like to know the history of that GOBAN. Now I just got to get my friend interested in GO!

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

I'm also a noob to Go, and I've been looking for a board for awhile. That's a crazy good deal! You could make money off of selling to others I'm sure.

Nice buy mmmsoup!
I like the bowls and stones a bit more than the board, but that's personal preference.
Have fun playing.

BTW, my guess would be that it is a katsura board, seeing the colour and the grain.
I understand katsura is a more widely used alternative to kaya, and it not that well appreciated in Japan as kaya (cheaper), but I think it is lovely and katsura is underrated. The legs of your board however do not seem to have been finished properly? Perhaps you want someone to have a look at it.

Thank you! I would've liked to get the stones too but I don't have a full set so my main goal then was to get both the board and stones in good condition that was also not as big as a traditional thick floor Goban because my apartment is small. I'm still on the lookout for other good deals though. Hehe.

Oh also about the legs, yeah I noticed that too but since I can always replace that or I can use it as a table board and it doesn't really prevent me from playing normally I think for now it's OK but thank you I think it might be Katsura too I'll see for sure when it arrives tomorrow.



Thanks! I thought so too! Lots of great go equipment are being auctioned cheaply here so I think that would be a good idea. But I don't know how I would go about selling internationally though. I could probably do it for a few people though

That price is really good for that set - even with all the wear on the wood. Also, welcome to Go and the site!