Opening a chess club

Question

Beside the chess sets and clocks, what materials are needed? I took care of the place, I'm talking about chess materials needed.

Now lets talk about the materials, I would like to buy them this week, I was looking at wholesalechess.com, but I wanted to ask you first, you are the almighty experts.

What I want is to buy, between 10 or 12 chess sets and 10 or 12 clocks (Do I need something else?)

I want free shipping to Lebanon, middle east, I want something that is quality and somehow cheap, I would prefer digital clocks, and club chess sets like this

I would like to be able to communicate with the seller, maybe I could ask him for a discount, or ask him for advice. I would like buyer protection, credit card gateway (paypal isn't available in my country) new items, nothing used, fast support, and fast shipping (ideally less than a month).

Second question here.

Answer 1

The manufacturer of the Game Timer II clock used to give a good discount to anyone buying 5+, but that was before they were owned by Excalibur; no idea if they currently do.

In my experience running a chess foundation, most of the manufacturers are open to quantity discounts, but you need to contact them directly in order to find out what they are. (Often they will give you the same price they give the retailers.) Retailers like wholesalechess.com are often willing to do some discounting, but usually they give you a table on their website of where the quantity breaks come in. Sometimes the price breaks don't happen before 25 or 50, though.

Bottom line is it never hurts to ask.

As for what else, depends on what you're aiming for with the club. Boards, sets and clocks are all you really need to get going. Other supplies might include pencils and scoresheets for official games, a large demo board (or electronic display, depending upon budget -- we typically use demo boards with pockets on each square for the piece) can come in handy if someone is going to give demonstrations or lessons for the club members.

Answer 2

IMHO best place to buy chess sets is cnchess.com factory in China.
Pretty reasonable prices, and you avoid the middle man. Shipping is OK but not great. The basic vinyl boards and tournament sets are decent, but they have a better selection. They also have a clock section.

The best clock for the price is the "leap pq 9903" - you can find them in a lot of places. They are cheap and way more durable than the others mentioned above.

As far as what you need I highly recommend that you buy 30-40 extra sets to sell to your customers. Your sales should cover the cost of your boards and your shipping, with extra in your pocket. It might take a year to sell them off, but if you don't have them you can't sell them!