The Jet Set and the pull of a black tile

In Letter No. 33, The Hand That Haunts You, sent on October 29, 2026, the week of Halloween, Prim used her Tile Envy column to admit to a longing for black tiles. Her case was about mood more than money. A dark set on a dark cloth, she wrote, draws a table closer and lowers its voice without anyone asking, and on the one evening of the year made for atmosphere she thought her readers had earned it.

The set she kept returning to was the Jet Set from Yellow Mountain Imports. She likened a built wall of its gold backed tiles to a row of shutters with lamplight slipping through, and pictured its bright faces glowing against the black. Then she gave the warning she had promised: as she wrote, the Jet Set had already sold out, and anyone chasing the look should mark the set and be ready when it returns.

Order of the Tile is not affiliated with Yellow Mountain Imports and does not sell sets. What follows is what the maker says about its own product, and about itself.

What the maker says

Yellow Mountain Imports sells the Jet Set as a set of 166 American Mahjong tiles, tiles only. According to the product page as the Internet Archive captured it in August 2025, the tiles are midnight black with a golden curved Art Deco motif on the back, and each face is engraved in vivid colors with Chinese characters, Western letters and Western numerals.

The tiles are scratch resistant acrylic, and the page gives each one as 1.2 by 0.9 by 0.5 inches. It says the 166 tiles include four blank spares. A game of American Mahjong uses 152 tiles, so the rest of the box is spares, and blanks are not part of the League game. No racks, wind indicators or other accessories come with the set, and the maker asks anyone pairing the tiles with a case or racks they already own to read the measurements carefully, or to get in touch, before buying. The price in that capture was $59.99, under item number US-AT020-B.

That same capture shows something else. In August 2025 the page already marked the Jet Set sold out, with a note that the product was unavailable. The scarcity Prim warned about in October 2026 has a history.

A games house since 2004

On its About Us page, Yellow Mountain Imports says it has been a name in the gaming community since 2004, and that its mission is to offer a selection of high quality traditional games. The page dwells on craftsmanship and attention to detail, and on the beauty of a game as part of the pleasure of playing it.

Mahjong is one shelf in a wide store. The same site sells chess, Chinese chess, Go, Chinese checkers, backgammon, dominoes, mancala, ludo and card games, and keeps how to play guides for many of them, American Mahjong among them.

For American Mahjong players, the Jet Set is one of several tiles only sets. When the Internet Archive captured the company's American Mahjong tiles collection in June 2026, it showed others in the same 166 tile format, including sets called The Classic, Chinoise, Pepper and Huntington.

“Every game should be admired as well as enjoyed.”Yellow Mountain Imports, on its About Us page

How to find one

The maker marks stock on each product's own page, so the place to watch is the Jet Set's page on the Yellow Mountain Imports site. Whether it is back as of this writing is a question that page answers better than any Letter can.

For a Halloween table in the meantime, Prim had a second idea in the same Letter, and it costs nothing: the old carved set sitting in a family drawer, its tiles the color of candle wax, brought out for one night so the old tiles can haunt the table themselves.

Prim's view

I meant every word of my confession, and I will add one more. A black tile is a small act of theater, and theater is the right mood for October 31. You squint a little. You lean in. The whole table plays a touch more quietly, as if the wall might overhear.

What charms me about the Jet Set is the backs. Gold Art Deco curves on midnight black are a party dress for a wall of tiles, and the bright faces keep it a working set and not only a pretty one. I was also amused to learn, from that archived page, that it was already playing hard to get in the summer of 2025. Some sets simply know their own worth.

So if you own one, Halloween is its evening. If you do not, keep an eye on the maker's page and be patient. In the meantime, switch off the overhead light and bring out whatever tiles you love. The candle does half the work.