Bamboo go board - moriental, YMI etc.

[Brenno]

After having flirted with the idea of purchasing a more expensive go board, I have decided to look for a bamboo board, which should be good enough for my needs.

I have seen a few places online selling what seems to me to be very similar 1" bamboo go boards. YMI, of which I have already heard lots of great references, is one of such places. I've also found one for sale, at a lower price, here http://www.moriental.com/1-Reversible-S ... _1580.html). I haven't heard much about this store, though. Has anyone bought anything from them before? Do you recommend them? And is the quality of the bamboo boards sold at these two different sites comparable?
Any help, tip, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated!

[imabuddha]

They're similar, but moriental has a $100 minimum order policy, so unless you're doing a group buy (or want some of their other wares) it won't make economic sense.

[Brenno]

Hi imabuddha,

Thanks for the reply! I think moriental has changed their policy, though. When creating an account, you're given the option of choosing a retail or a wholesale account. The wholesale account does have the minimum you speak of, but not the retail one. So would you say that in terms of quality, the YMI and the moriental.com board are comparable? Would this also be the case with regard to customer service? (I know YMI is great in this regard; but I simply don't have any experience with moriental.com...)

[imabuddha]

Ah, that's different from a couple of years ago when I found them.

I can't comment on moriental's customer service, but I know YMI's is great. Regarding the quality, there was a thread about a large order that Michael Dobbins placed with moriental back on the old GoDiscussions board. As I recall he was quite satisfied.

[tchan001]

When ordering online, you should also think about how much shipping costs.
I have no idea what the shipping costs for moriental will be, but for YMI if you go to their website, free US shipping is available for orders over $125.

If you go to the YMI ebay store, there seems to be free US shipping for individual items so you don't need to order at least $125.
http://stores.ebay.com/Yellow-Mountain-Imports/

But then with you and YMI both being in California, you'd need to pay sales tax if you order from YMI. Whereas moriental is based in Ohio. I don't have an account with moriental so I can't really see what the price difference is.