Where is the prices?

I have to agree with you here. I find this practice intensely annoying and tend not to buy much from these sorts of sites. Too exclusive for me I think.

Kat

I concur -- it's absolutely annoying when you have to email for prices, and not just puerh -- some people make you do it for any and all teas they sell. I personally find it very cumbersome. There are plenty of people who sell tea. I don't need to beg for somebody's price list. It's amazing the number of sites that actually make you do this.

Also, I have a suspicion that people whose price lists are private will generally have higher prices.

MarshalN

I hate that and if you have to sign in with your details. Sometimes its impossible to browse a site without singning in.

As for selling tea without prices and easily accessible terms and conditions that include a street address and a telephone contact - supposedly illegal here in the UK to trade without those - yet a lot of sites have no clue - we have something called the distance selling regulations and they apply to internet selling as well as mail order sales. Steer clear of any site that doesnt give such basic info.

Karl Sprenger wrote in news:q74zh.17450$5q6.11466 @newsfe17.lga:

Tou're not alone. And of course you should know about the orgin & processing of the tea, its year, etc. (Then the question becomes, "Should you trust this stranger 10,000 miles away with your money?" but that's another thread.)

Such sites remind me of the old saying about the amusements of the rich, "if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." That being said, I suspect it's poor design, or at any rate for such potential customers as myself. :)

Ozzy

One page might give you some idea of his pricing model -

he has what they call the Emperor's Tribute pack containing

all for US$300

Comes in a wicker basket.

Cheers Mal Oz

I have to agree. Almost without exception the lack of a "published" pricelist is a good indicator that the teas are going to be very high priced. "If you have to ask, you cant afford it" type of attitude. Besides, I cant help but feel that prices are often not established until they size up the customer.

I am only a working man, I cant afford to deal with vendors who think they are that "exclusive".

___________ Mike Petro

Perhaps it's a really nice basket :]

I didn't think about that at all, but you're absolutely right. A guy living in NYC might get different prices than somebody living in Sudan. Unless they're active participants on the web in the same groups, chances are they won't talk.

Interesting, but true.

MarshalN

Whenever you buy aged puer ask yourself who in the past put some away and realized I'd pay that much today not withstanding abacus actuarial tables and the certificate of authenticity. It may be possible that people have thirty year old teas sitting on their shelves like me but they're not for sale which makes me rich because I never bought IPO shares of MS and Google. That and $3.50 will buy me a pot of tea at my local tea shoppe.

Jim

PS Why is more 70s puer available than 80s and 90s?

I've asked the same question before, and one answer was:

Because if you're going to fake a tea, it's better to fake a 70s tea. It's worth more. Less people have seen the real deal in their entirety, and few have tried it in person, so they can't tell a real from a fake. Packaging was simple. Most of them have been through wet storage anyway, so some wet storage (and then a few years in dry storage) might approximate the taste, if you don't know how to tell them apart.

MarshalN

Maybe its a Longaberger, thus the price?

LOL

Karl

Cheers