I was wondering if anyone out there was familiar with the custom boards made by Svilo at gammoncity.com? They seem like what I'm looking for (non-leather with suede surface and printed points), but all I've seen is pictures. Also, his website, at least portions of it, seems to be currently down.

I'm not crazy about cork surfaces and have never had luck with boards that have vinyl-sewn points...and of course I can't afford leather. Any suggestions?

http://www.akspiele.de/akspiele/deu/...=8066&Auswahl=

Plaspel "Hilton" artificial Leather, 289€, points from artificial Leather, worked in the surface. I have the same with leather for ten years, nothing has gone. Clearcut take, but only a few available.

Thanks much. Very nice boards, indeed. Kind of pricey,though-- perhaps I'm setting my standards too high.

Plaspel Hilton only 259€, misread, the dalNegro boards 289€. For 259€ you get no board in this quality. This is the ultimate budget take. If you are an aficionado and can afford the price, look at www.gammoner.de, there are boards with 3mm felt surface, quality like the legendary german dresen boards, but very pricey.

A twenty euro doubling cube lol

hAhA! I'm tellin' ya.

Expensive? So you're playin in the 10 cent chouette, needing the stake?

As someone who regularly spends more on pocket squares than many people earn in a month, I'm not a very good person to comment on opulent excess, but even I baulk at paying twenty euros for a single die, regardless of how well made it is.

So i understand it as follows: if a thing is worth the price, you spend the money for it. Even a salary of a month. So if you ever played a chouette with such nice cubes (and a cube for everyone) and precision dices, you would find, that they are worth the price. Playin on a board for 50 bucks or for 500 and for hours is a difference, believe me. If there are gold inlays in the cube and it would cost 200, then i also would say lol. But it is good equipement, worth the price. I even have a cube, that starts with 128 and has the words "big pigeon" on one side .

I understand this with checkers and board surfaces where you are constantly picking them up and interacting with them, and obviously you want completely fair dice to roll with, but a doubling cube is not something you are handling all the time and does not need to be a precision piece of equipment as it is not being rolled (at least as far as I have ever played/seen played).

I honestly can't see how the small amount of stimulation I might get from picking up a slightly higher quality cube every now and then justifies this huge price tag for what is basically a small block of plastic with some numbers on it that sits on the side of the board doing nothing for 99% of a game.

If you play every day Backgammon for a living, you don't look after this, but if you travel 6-10 times a year for a weekend to play, then it is something different, and then i, at least, want to play with good, not crappy material.

"PEOPLE often talk as if there was an opposition between what is beautiful and what is useful. There is no opposition to beauty except ugliness: all things are either beautiful or ugly, and utility will be always on the side of the beautiful thing, because beautiful decoration is always on the side of the beautiful thing, because beautiful decoration is always an expression of the use you put a thing to and the value placed on it. No workman will beautifully decorate bad work, nor can you possibly get good handicraftsmen or workmen without having beautiful designs. You should be quite sure of that. If you have poor and worthless designs in any craft or trade you will get poor and worthless workmen only, but the minute you have noble and beautiful designs, then you get men of power and intellect and feeling to work for you. By having good designs you have workmen who work not merely with their hands but with their hearts and heads too; otherwise you will get merely the fool or the loafer to work for you." Oscar Wilde.

I'm with higonfive and Oscar Wilde on this. If you're serious about the game, buy high-quality equipment. The pleasure of playing with nice equipment will repay you over time.

the below boards are expensive but are are terrific. you can have them custom made.

http://www.chicagopoint.com/Images/tm/takboards2.html

http://www.chicagopoint.com/takboards.html

GO TO: http://www.buy-backgammon.com/

Very good prices on gorgeous BG boards made in Greece.

Take a look.

There are a few amazing board makers around. I think the top two are Brahma boards (michigan) and Tak morioka (out of chicago). Both boards are top quality. Also, they will also allow you to choosethe wood used for the case, point colors and playing surface colors. I have one of each and they are both amazing. They are pretty pricey, but really make the game more enjoyable.

I think, the main problem is the field and the tongues. If you ever saw a felt field, with felt inlays for the tongues, not printed, absolutely correct cutted and put together with beautiful colors of the felt and absolutely flat that you can push the checkers over the field with no hemming, no noise even if you bang the dicies in, then you want to have such a board. For years, i played with someone on his dresen board, and that was the best board, i ever played. If you like the clickediclack from the dicies, then it may be something different, but otherwise the extenuating play on planar felt is inimitable. The plaspel board goes in that direction. The surface is also planar and the tongues are flat in the field. You can push the checkers also without hemming. But it is not the same. And for the gammoner boards, the maker deconstructed dresen boards to go behind the secrets of making them. I think, if you ever played a Schön at pool, you know, what i mean (couldn't afford it, playin a meucci Hubbart ). It is the very same. So, make no mistake. Soon the holiday season will arrive...

Being a rank amateur, and having not played the game in quite a few years, I must say that I was stunned at some of the price differences on sets. In my other endeavors, I will often purchase a higher quality item over one that's cheap or run-of-the-mill...why not? If it's something you enjoy, and it's a product that will last and provide many years of enjoyment, it seems like a no-brainer.

But I guess I'm just amazed that finding a rugged, non-leather, tournament-size board in the $200-250 range, one that will take a licking and keep on ticking -- whether I'm hauling it around to friends' houses or using it at home -- is proving difficult. I'm not crazy about cork surfaces, and my old set is felt with cheap vinyl sewn points...in fact, I saw a similar set online that runs around $100 -- not a great value, I'm afraid.

I suppose I'm simply naive. Some of these leather sets are gorgeous, but as an amateur, I really can't justify the expense. (Plus the wife would choke me.) Likewise, the wood ones are beautiful, but I guess I have a thing about rolling dice on wood.

Anyway, these things considered, I sort of had my heart set on some sort of suede fabric surface with printed or inlaid points and a fake leather exterior, as well as standard checkers, dice and DC...that is, until I saw some of the prices.

Like I said, I guess I'm pretty naive.

How do you guys feel about cork?

Yes, exactly. I suppose I would be fine with such a board if the points were sewn perfectly, with no protruding edges. Years ago I took a razor blade to the point edges on my cheap board, because as I would slide the checker it would stop, although my finger would keep going. Now, fifteen years later, the thing looks like it's been run through a meat grinder.

Allow me to make a recommendation that actually meets your requirements.

I have this board and being a rank amateur like yourself, it is perfect for me at the moment. Suede and not cork as you requested with 1.75" checkers. I bought one from Carol Joy Cole and it has some upgrades including brass coverings on the exterior corners and lips on the cup. I also purchased some precision dice and everything was under $230 shipped to my door.

Get a very nice board (in this amateur's opinion) for a very nice price.

http://www.gammonvillage.com/backgam..._crocodile.cfm

Dresen boards are the best,too bad he stopped making them many years ago.
Still got 2 of them though,I dont think i would ever sell them.....

Do you ever looked at a gammoner? I think, this is a reinvention. A plaspel Hilton is not the same, but the same idea with field and tongues. If anyone likes to play for the same reasons such a board as i mentioned above and has a limited budget, i strongly recommend it. But i think a buy decision depends also on haptic. I saw the plaspel at the internet, but drove then from braunschweig to kassel, to see and feel the boards, they had in stock. Volker Wenzlaff (gammoner) will be at the german open, which started today.
Suede, leather, felt. No kork, no wood, nothing printed. Just my opinion. Can be reason to drive to a major tournament, alone to see the different boards.

Thanks, nmad, could be just what the doctor ordered. Good enough for the time being, at a good price.

You mentioned that she provided you a couple of upgrades...are the upgraded cups something besides the cheap plastic? I see that the standard ones are quite short (3") so as to fit in their holders.

Thanks again.

In my opinion the leather surface on brahma boards is far superior in feel and durability then any felt surface I have played. Also, the overall construction quality is about ten levels better then all the boards mentioned here. Not close for me. But that's just one opinion.

The cups are the same plastic ones in the pictures. The only upgrade to them is an additional layer of cork on the top-interior to create a trip lip.

Yeah, they're plastic and look a bit cheap and even though they are light, they seem reasonably sturdy. I just measured and the walls of the cup (excluding the interior cork) and they are about 1/8" thick - so at least I would say they are not flimsy.


They are also >$1000 - again, not what the OP is looking for.

Here's another option - I just played on one of these just the other day and it is pretty nice for the price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Vitor-Hollan...ht_6469wt_1140