Before you buy
Costco, Hobby Lobby, Amazon or custom: which mahjong set should you buy?
An honest guide to the store sets and when a custom set is worth it. The store sets are fine for learning. A custom set is the one nobody else has.
Short answer: a store set is fine for learning the game, and a custom set is for the table you already love. Here is how the choices line up, as honestly as we can put it, since we sell one of them.
Is the Costco mahjong set good?
Yes, for what it is. As of autumn 2026 Costco's American Mahjong set has been about $100: a complete set with large, easy-to-read tiles, tile trays and a tote. It sells out, so if you see one and want one, buy it. It is a standard set, which means it looks like every other standard set, and that is the whole difference between it and ours.
Is the Hobby Lobby mahjong set good?
For a first set or a second set for the lake house, it is hard to argue with a set that costs about twenty dollars. The tiles are smaller and lighter than the sets most groups play on, and the pink one is, well, pink. If your group is learning, it will get you to the table.
What about Amazon?
Most of the standard American sets on Amazon run $70 to $180. The well-reviewed ones are complete, the tiles are the usual size, and the racks and pushers are included. They are a safe buy. They are also one of a few thousand sets exactly like them.
When is a custom set worth it?
When the set is the point. A custom set is not a better way to learn mahjong; it is the set your group talks about. Every one of the 160 tiles is yours: the jokers are your people, the winds are your four regulars, the dots are the thing your table laughs about. At Snarky Tiles a set is $399 in classic white or $449 in pearlescent, and that includes the carry case, a pair of semi-precious stone dice, four reference cards and US shipping. It ships within 10 days of your order.
You design it in your browser, in one sitting. Madge, our AI designer, paints the whole set from a description and you approve every picture, or you start from a finished template and change whatever you like. Nothing prints until you have seen every tile at its real size. If anything arrives wrong, we reprint it free, and if you ever lose a tile, we reprint that one for the shipping.
A fair way to decide
- Learning the game, or buying for a beginner: a store set.
- A spare for travel or the cabin: a store set.
- The set for your regular table, a gift for the friend who hosts, or the one that gets handed down: design your own.