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The game as cards rather than tiles, 152 of them in a wooden box, for small tables and hands that find a full set heavy.
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Flat $9.95 shipping · 30-day returns from delivery
A mahjong card set plays the same game with printed cards in place of moulded tiles. The suits, honours and flowers are all there; what disappears is the weight, the wall and the shuffle.
That sounds like a downgrade until you meet the people who buy them. Cards go to a hospital room, a holiday flat, a cruise cabin and a care home. They also go to a player whose hands have stopped enjoying 2 kilo set, and who would rather keep playing than stop.
There is no wall to build, so a hand starts immediately and an evening fits into an hour rather than 3. Discards stack rather than spread, so the table can be much smaller. Four people play mahjong on a tray table, which is impossible with tiles.
What you lose is the sound and the heft, which for many players is a large part of why they play at all. Cards are a second set, rarely a first.
Most card sets ship in a printed sleeve that splits at the corners within a season, after which the deck lives in a rubber band. A wooden box with a lid keeps the cards square, keeps them dry and keeps them together, which is the whole difficulty with a set of 152 loose objects.
Keep the cards dry and let them breathe if the box has been in a cold car. Do not wash them. A split or bent card should be replaced rather than played, because a marked back in mahjong is a marked back.
A traveller, a small table, or a player who wants the game to stay possible when a full set has become too much to handle.
| Cards | 152 |
|---|---|
| Card size | 1.2 x 0.9 x 0.5 in |
| Material | Melamine and organic material |
| Box | Wood |
| Weight | 4 kg (8.8 lb) |
| Age | 14 and over |
Orders are processed within 1 to 2 business days, with tracking on every parcel. Delivery across the United States takes 10 to 25 days and costs $9.95, one flat rate charged once per order whatever the number of items.
Changed your mind? You have 30 days from delivery to request a return, unused and in its original packaging. Approved refunds go back to your original payment method within 3 business days.
Play tonight
Tiles, and everything the case holds, in one box. Unwrap it, deal a hand, and your table is running.
The sound alone
Shuffling a real set is half the pleasure. Weight in your hand, that clack across the table: you can hear it before you see it.
Yours for twenty years
A set outlasts the group it started with. Choose one you'll still want on the table when someone else is dealing.
Cost sits in the piece count and in what holds it together. A playing set is well over a hundred separate objects, each moulded or printed and colour matched to the rest, then packed in something that keeps them in one place. This is 152 cards in a wooden box, and the box is a real part of the price: a printed sleeve splits at the corners within a season, after which the deck lives in a rubber band.
Value on an older set comes from what the tiles are made of, whether the count is complete, and how the case has survived. Bone and bamboo sets in their original box are appraised piece by piece, and a missing flower or a warped drawer moves the figure a long way. A card set is a different object: 152 printed cards meant to be played with and replaced when one bends, not collected.
Warehouse sets are usually complete and usually printed rather than engraved, which suits occasional play well enough. Judge any of them on three things: the count, whether the markings are cut into the piece or laid on top of it, and what holds the whole thing together. This one is 152 cards in a wooden box with a lid, chosen because a deck that stays square keeps getting played.
General and craft retailers stock mahjong seasonally, so what sits on a shelf changes through the year and the count is worth checking in the aisle. The 2 counts are not interchangeable: 144 tiles for the traditional game, 166 for the American one with its jokers. A card deck sidesteps that question entirely, since 152 cards cover the suits, honours and flowers in the space of a paperback.
A mahjong set is handled more than almost anything else in the house: every tile passes through four pairs of hands, several times a game.
That is what we select for. Tiles that read clearly from the far side of the table, edges that stay clean, and a case that still closes after a few seasons of being carried around.
Sets differ in ways that only show at the table: the weight of a tile in the hand, how a crak reads from three seats away, whether the case survives the trip to a friend’s house.
When we have the figures, we publish them: tile count, tile size, weight and material. When we do not have one, we leave it out rather than guess.
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