The Tiles in Mahjong Set Listings: A Pre-Purchase Checklist
Product photos are designed to seduce. A fan of jokers, a neat stack of flowers, a hero shot of the prettiest dragon, and you are halfway to checkout. What those images rarely show is the whole inventory, and that is exactly what you need to judge a set. Before you buy, it is worth going through the tiles in mahjong set listings group by group, the way a card dealer checks a fresh deck. It takes five minutes, and it separates a set your mahj group will play for a decade from one that ends up in a cupboard because the jokers are missing or the numerals are unreadable across the table. The checklist below follows the order in which you meet the tiles during play, from the three suits through the honors to the jokers that make the American game so lively and so forgiving of a hand that almost came together.
What tiles should an American mahjong set include?
An American set should include seven groups: bams, craks and dots numbered one to nine in four copies each, four of each wind, four of each dragon, 8 flowers and 8 jokers, for 152 tiles in play. Now the checklist. Suits: look for Western index numbers in a corner, and check that the one bam is clearly recognizable, since it is often drawn as a bird. Winds: north, east, west and south should carry clear letters. Dragons: the white dragon, often called soap, should be obvious at a glance, because it also stands in as zero. Flowers: all 8 are interchangeable in play, so different artwork is fine. Jokers: confirm the count is eight, not four. When the tiles in mahjong set photos show only a handful of pieces, message the seller and ask for the full layout. Finally, look for spares, because those extra tiles in mahjong set boxes protect you when a piece goes missing and show the maker understands how the game is really played.
Our sets make the checklist easy: every one holds 160 tiles, covering all seven groups plus spares, and the Classic Bamboo Number set in orange is a good example of a design where the numbered suits take center stage. You can compare the rest across our complete tile collection, and if a question about counts or care is not answered there, the frequently asked questions page probably covers it. There is real satisfaction in opening a box and finding every piece exactly where you expected, the jokers bright, the flowers crisp, nothing missing and nothing to apologize for when friends arrive. Keep this list open while you check the tiles in mahjong set photos, and buy with the calm of someone who knows precisely what is coming to the table.