At the Quad tournament I run once a month, I donated a number of small trophies and medals I won as a scholastic player as prizes and we’ve been awarding trophies to scholastic players who win their section with a perfect score or a medal if they win or tie for first in their section without a perfect score. We are about to run out of the trophies that I donated so we are going to purchase some. What is the best place to get some smaller chess trophies from?
Mentioning specific places to buy chess trophies and medals would be advertising, so I’ll just make a general suggestion to check the Internet and check the yellow pages.
For me? Some place local that you can develop a good relationship with.
Have you checked with the local scholastic organizers (or looked at the bottom of one of your trophies?)
You’ve got to be kidding. This interpretation of the rules limits the use of these forums to a ridiculous extreme.
As certified TDs of the USCF, members should be able to get information like this that would only enhance the USCF and Chess experience.
The issue with Internet purchasing on this stuff may end up with shipping costs and turn around time issues. I want some place that I can get last minute additions that match and that I can get additional matching trophies after the event if I need to do so. I have also had long time trophy vendors actually come out to the event site to fix problems while the event was going on - that is service I am willing to pay a bit more for. But I have found that I didn’t really have to pay much if any more.
When I have events with a whole bunch of trophies I want them delivered. I don’t want to have to be messing with the things. I also may have a decent volume and some distance to cover so I don’t want to have to fool with a truck full of trophies. Again, I’m willing to pay for that.
While there are some national companies that sell trophies, my preference is to work with a local distributor. This way, I can see his wares for quality and price. You can then work with him in case of breakage or repair, emergency need for trophies at the last minute, or making changes on plates. Sometimes you learn new ideas for styles of trophies. Just because the national company gives you a great price is not enough reason to buy from them. There is some real junk being purveyed.
I like trophies for our tournaments to have marble bases, not plastic. We vary the colors from event to event. I try to get chess pieces rather than heads on top of the trophies. The huge trophies are a waste of money. People are satisfied with something smaller and more personalized. If you can settle on the right style and price, you can provide more trophies for an event, which then draws more players to future tournaments. It is advisable to keep a couple of extra trophies or medals on hand to give out for ties or to create a new prize category on the spot. Nobody complains when extra prizes are offered, like an extra unrated trophy or a best game trophy. You can always send plates out later to the winner of these extra trophies.
I agree with your last paragraph, Ron, but I also agree with Bob regarding our current interpretation. I’m not sure how we, as moderators, or you, as a member, suggest changes to the AUG, but I would be open to that idea.
One place to look is the pro shop at a local bowling alley. They may have to special order and/or not have as large a selection as you may want. They can also provide you with plaques as well as trophies. The first time I purchased a plaque they added some nice laser engraved Knights at the corners for no extra charge. Probably, just a way to try to get future business. Still it was a nice added touch. Local trophy shops are of course another alternative. One thing to remember is you can always do price comparison shopping. Finally do think about lead time for getting any trophies, as well as the hours of the establishment you get them at.
Larry S. Cohen
I like to have a relationship with a local trophy shop. I use the local trophy shop for actual trophies and the large internet vendors for medals, ribbons, and other mementos.
One common danger with a local trophy shop is that they seem by habit to assemble all their trophies on rushed frenzied Fridays. I came to wonder what the staff of trophy shops actually did Tue-Wed-Thr? Losta internet cruising is my best guess.
I came to insist on Wed pick-up. It placed me first in line and gave me two days to get errors fixed.
I was one of my trophy shops largest customers and I paid cash. The owner was all smiles whenever I came in. They seem to get stiffed for non-payment more often than a lot of other businesses.
Atfer a while I just emailed the local guy my standard trophy order, the host school name, and the host school colors. I let him actually design the trophies. He’s the pro and he did much better than I did with varying the designs and making them attractive.
Most parents prefer a nicer smaller trophy than can be displayed on a modest shelf over the floor models taller than their kids common at the Big State and National Events.
The quality of the trophy is much more important than the size. We like to order trophies that are in brighter colors or have a shimmering look when you turn them in the light. Nice trim around the colors. Solid marble bases rather than plastic. I have let the trophy place pick the style sometimes and have just given them the color and what I want on the plate. They jazzed up one set of trophies so well that I was a little embarrassed to pay so little for the items. They used laser etching for the plates. That type of work is not done by hand anymore but uses a computer to set up and do the lettering. The laser is programmed to do the work. The only thing done by hand is assembling the parts of the trophy. I usually keep a set of tools handy on game day at the tournament to tighten up the screws on the trophies if they seem a little loose.
I would like to vary the tops on the trophies. We have found kings and queens to put on top. For some reason is hard to find a knight to put on the trophies. If we had multiple pieces to use, we could differentiate place and class trophies by piece. There seems to be a standard size of the plastic kings and we haven’t been able to find larger ones in the various trophy catalogs.
At one of our state K-8 championships in the late '80s the organizer had very nice loving cups for the top five places with standard trophies for 6th-15th. The loving cups were actually shorter than some of the trophies but they were the ones that had the kids gasping in awe when the trophies were revealed at the start of the tournament.
Many kids are prouder of the accomplishment the trophy designates than the trophy itself. My son won a ratings based blitz trophy (first for the ratings range) for a 1-9 score (in games played) in an open section in a national and he also won a trophy for going 4-0 in a ratings based section at a local tournament. He takes more pride in that 4-0 result and prefers that trophy over the slightly taller (and admittedly nicer looking) national trophy.
The Bowling alley pro shop one made me a made to order trophy. I gave it a plastic pawn to use for the trophy top. Using old (but nice) pieces of wood or plastic is an alternative to the standard trophies that are available. Also, I should point out that the bowling alley pro shop often gets it standard [King/Queen] pieces from the large internet shops. This can be an added mark up on any trophy purchase, but you also may be able to get the trophy sooner. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about the shipping as you are physically picking up your order. This means you can often get the same quality of trophy from the bowling alley as you can from a large trophy house. Another good point is that most bowling trophies [non-chess] are wood based. That means you have a good opportunity to get a wood or marble trophy rather than a plastic trophy.
I would warn anyone against the acrylic trophies, plaques, and awards. I remember directing for the AmericInn chess tournaments way back when. They had the acrylic awards and one of the winners had theirs break that same day. Acrylic may be better than glass, but it is not indestructable.
Larry S. Cohen