books, shipping costs and other observations

[TominNJ]

I've been looking for a couple books and not having much luck finding them at reasonable prices:

graded go problems I,II,III

attack and defense

get strong at the opening

get strong at joseki I,II

get strong at attacking

and others.

They're seemingly available at list price directly from Kiseido but they ship airmail from Japan and their ordering website doesn't give you the shipping price until you submit your credit card info. I don't want to order $60 worth of books and find out that shipping is another $30. Has anyone ordered direct? How much was the shipping?

Is there another source in the U.S. for these books that I'm unaware of? I've tried bookfinder.com and the prices range from "way too high" at the low end to "do you think I'm an idiot?" at the high end. Apparently, some editions contain treasure maps.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Tom

[CarlJung]

I've been looking for a couple books and not having much luck finding them at reasonable prices:

graded go problems I,II,III

attack and defense

get strong at the opening

get strong at joseki I,II

get strong at attacking

and others.

They're seemingly available at list price directly from Kiseido but they ship airmail from Japan and their ordering website doesn't give you the shipping price until you submit your credit card info. I don't want to order $60 worth of books and find out that shipping is another $30. Has anyone ordered direct? How much was the shipping?

Is there another source in the U.S. for these books that I'm unaware of? I've tried bookfinder.com and the prices range from "way too high" at the low end to "do you think I'm an idiot?" at the high end. Apparently, some editions contain treasure maps.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Tom

Just an observation, except for graded go problems I and II, those books are way above your level (kgs rank graph indicates you're somewhere around 20k). Some people like books for their own value, and that's fine. I'd just like to point out that you won't be getting much out of those books yet with regards to improving your game. I'd suggest focusing only on easy tsumego books if improvement is what you're looking for. I have read books that are above my level in the past and it's just not fun at all.

[topazg]

http://www.thetradingcentre.co.uk/produ ... +Go+Series is pretty good, but it's UK based I think - I don't know what the shipping is like.

Plenty of US people on here should be able to help more

EDIT: I also agree with Carl, and would recommend the elementary go series as a good place to start with Graded Go Problems I and II as your problem books.

[rottenhat]

To answer the original question, I haven't ordered from Kiseido since I moved back to Ireland four years ago, but their shipping costs were very low, maybe $3-4 for an order of 2 or 3 books. Just enough to cover media mail postage within the US, I think - they ship from the California office, not Japan, unless things have changed.

[kirkmc]

Yutopian used to distribute Kiseido's books in the US, and it looks like that is no longer the case. Amazon.com sells some of them, but not all. (Dang, I just saw some of the prices for OOP books; I really need to put some of mine up for sale...)

To be fair, while the shipping may seem expensive, it really isn't if you compare prices for the same books from other dealers where the retail price already includes part of the shipping cost from Japan.

If you send them an e-mail, they'll tell you the shipping price. In fact, if you order enough books, it'll be free; I generally group my orders, and when I send a query, they tell me that they'll give free shipping if I buy, say, a half-dozen books. They're very good people.

[judicata]

I've purchased several books from Kiseido, and the shipping has always been reasonable here in the US. I ordered 3 books a few weeks ago and the shipping was $6.

If you're already ordering some other books, you might as well include a few books that are above your level (if you're comfortable spending the money). If you are 20kyu, working through Grade Go Problems 1 and 2 alone will probably make you at least 4 stones stronger.

[TominNJ]

Just an observation, except for graded go problems I and II, those books are way above your level (kgs rank graph indicates you're somewhere around 20k). Some people like books for their own value, and that's fine. I'd just like to point out that you won't be getting much out of those books yet with regards to improving your game. I'd suggest focusing only on easy tsumego books if improvement is what you're looking for. I have read books that are above my level in the past and it's just not fun at all.

You're probably right but I'm going to order enough books to make the shipping cost worthwhile. I already have some books that are over my head and I think I've gotten something out of each of them. If nothing else, they made me realize how much I don't know. Now that I'm aware of the depth of my ignorance, I can maybe start to fill the hole.

I've contacted Kisiedo and asked which are available in the US so I don't have to pay the air mail rate from Japan.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

[kukula]

I've been working through Graded Go Problem vol 2 and mostly I can understand the answers but not always. It feels like it's about the right level for me - hard enough but not impossible.

Is there a recommended place and style here for discussions about specific problems in books? One topic per problem, in the Beginner forum? Or fold all problems in a book into one topic?

[GoCat]

Yeah, Kisedo is quite reasonable about shipping. Like judicata, above, I've recently ordered 3 books from Kiseido. Shipping was JPY 700, which I think is about $8-9. My suggestion; Buy what you want; the shipping won't be a problem. And by all means, buy above your level. After all, it's all about owning as many books as possible!

[judicata]

Is there a recommended place and style here for discussions about specific problems in books? One topic per problem, in the Beginner forum? Or fold all problems in a book into one topic?

People don't seem terribly picky, but either the Beginner or Study Group forum would probably be best.

[xed_over]

Is there another source in the U.S. for these books that I'm unaware of?

http://senseis.xmp.net/?BuyingEquipment ... rthAmerica

Kiseido (I believe they have US based shipping also, but yes, their website sucks), Slate and Shell, Yellow Mountain Imports, Yutopian -- to name a few