TeaChat

What really is a fair market price in the West for a top end 2006 Bulang? (Some how even typing "top end Bulang" felt odd.. )

I ran across Verdant's Teas page on the Pu'er reserve project:

" The goal of this project is to make available small quantities of pu’er whose prices are too prohibitive to fully recover costs on through normal retail sales. Every once in a while we come across teas that we wish we could import, but know that the price would be too steep. "

"The first tea we plan to release is the Tian Di Ren Mt. Bulang ’06 Sheng."

Can a 06 Bulang be too expensive to import given that Verdant Tea has pretty much broken the ceiling of 06 Bulangs with $156 for their Yong Ming Star of Bulang? Does Tiandiren- a known mass market low-entry factory- have an 06 Bulang offering that exceeds $156?
(search 2006 天地人 布朗 on Taobao.)

I've attached $11(69RMB) 2006 Tiandiren Bulang forwarded to me by MarshalN:

I've also enclosed a screenshot to preserve for historical purposes: David Duckler can bring transparency to his pu-erh selling just by putting up a wrapper picture(an internet vendor standard) of this prohibitively expensive beeng.

To be fair, 69 RMB these days is over $10, slightly.

$10.94 = 69RMB. I've updated the post to $11.

What would be a beeng too outrageous to import?

Chensheng hao 2012 Banzhang, 3000 RMB a cake.

Tiandiren? It's too outrageously crappy to import. There isn't a single taker of Tiandiren cake in China. It's the dregs of the puerh market.

MarshalN wrote:To be fair, 69 RMB these days is over $10, slightly.

...to be fair


shouldn't the blog entry link be posted where DD responded?

http://teacloset.blogspot.com/2012/06/2 ... ea-is.html

ah yes, tea closet, didn't I read that reference b4 w/respect to another 'controversy' involving purershop here on a TC thread? perhaps I am mistaken

careful in directly implying 'scamdalous' and posting everywhere might result in liable defamation causes of action...perhaps ask Cloud, lol

wh&yel-apprentice wrote:
careful in directly implying 'scamdalous' and posting everywhere might result in liable defamation causes of action...perhaps ask Cloud, lol

David Ducker can simply prove his beeng is not a mass market low end beeng simply by producing a wrapper shot of what he is selling. Because Tiandiren is such a budget low-end factory, it's hard to believe that they have a Bulang worth more than $156.

Do you need any more than MarshalN's assurance:

MarshalN wrote: Tiandiren? It's too outrageously crappy to import. There isn't a single taker of Tiandiren cake in China. It's the dregs of the puerh market.

Hster

Yes the tea closet is full of controversy because the pu-erh market is full of scams and ripoffs. However I singled out Verdant Teas because they miraculously hold the top 7 spots for the best puerh on Steepster and their prices are so outrageous. If people don't know why a $156 is crazy price for a 2006 YongMing Bulang- well someone should do them the kindness of alerting them.

I just started my own site (as in....I finally finished it last night) sourcing puers that I enjoy...and completely independent of this thread, I was sourcing a 2006 Tiandiren Bulang, so I thought I would weigh in.

Apologies for shameless plugging, just thought it was relevant to the discussion

Tiandiren? It's too outrageously crappy to import. There isn't a single taker of Tiandiren cake in China. It's the dregs of the puerh market.

Also, to respond to Marshaln's quote, I think this Bulang is decent for it's price/enjoyment ratio, or I wouldn't sell it. But, obviously if a 2006 raw puer tea costs $11, it is not going to be a all-star tea. Different people have different puer budgets, otherwise we would all be drinking aged spring LBZ and GFZ all day and not givin' a *freak*. I think you have to weigh that in with any criticism of Tiandiren....their prices are economical. If their 2006 teas cost ~$10, they are in the amateur featherweight division. Obviously they aren't going to be boxing against Muhammad Ali in his prime. Personally, I don't mind an amateur fight.

TwoDog2 wrote:
Also, to respond to Marshaln's quote, I think this Bulang is decent for it's price/enjoyment ratio, or I wouldn't sell it.

TwoDog-

I'm not objecting to Tiandiren per say but the fact that Verdant Tea is passing it off as a sheng too prohibitively expensive to import but they are willing to share it with loyal customers who purchase more than $50.

I have to say you have great prices and good selection. You should plug yourself where ever you go.

Hster

hster wrote:

TwoDog2 wrote:
Also, to respond to Marshaln's quote, I think this Bulang is decent for it's price/enjoyment ratio, or I wouldn't sell it.

TwoDog-

I'm not objecting to Tiandiren per say but the fact that Verdant Tea is passing it off as a sheng too prohibitively expensive to import but they are willing to share it with loyal customers who purchase more than $50.

I have to say you have great prices and good selection. You should plug yourself where ever you go.

Hster

Thanks Hster, for the compliment.

I agree with your assessment, Tiandiren is not a prohibitively expensive puer... Marshaln's assessment is actually not far off, but the price is fair. If you go to McDonald's and buy a $4 value meal, you won't be getting seared Tuna on a bed of spring greens with pine nuts. You get a burger and fries.

I have had one interaction with DD and Verdant Tea and it was good.

I think the source store and their review should count more than the wrapper. Wrappers can be changed, different teas could be marketed under the same wrapper by different factories.

Even if you saw the bing directly, unless you infuse some tea from it you don't really know its qualities. It also depends on the conditions of storage of the vendors it passed through to get to you, so, the exact same tea in the same wrapper from the same batch might be different when bought from two different stores.

It is difficult to buy with certainty, especially when you don't have a special trust to the vendor and only rely on the wrapper. So, the word of a trusted source should count more than the papers.

I have followed this thread long enough to conclude that you should be teasing apart $1 , $5 , $ 10 bills and rating your satisfaction by the cost.

beecrofter wrote:I have followed this thread long enough to conclude that you should be teasing apart $1 , $5 , $ 10 bills and rating your satisfaction by the cost.

Do you mean, having a tiered system of some sort? or a rough range of prices?

I do have a difficult time understanding why people compare things that are far off in price - like comparing a $10 tea with a $100 tea. Obviously the $10 tea has very little chance of competing.

TwoDog2 wrote:

beecrofter wrote:I have followed this thread long enough to conclude that you should be teasing apart $1 , $5 , $ 10 bills and rating your satisfaction by the cost.

Do you mean, having a tiered system of some sort? or a rough range of prices?

I do have a difficult time understanding why people compare things that are far off in price - like comparing a $10 tea with a $100 tea. Obviously the $10 tea has very little chance of competing.

Great way to break it down 2Dog2.

TwoDog2 wrote:

beecrofter wrote:I have followed this thread long enough to conclude that you should be teasing apart $1 , $5 , $ 10 bills and rating your satisfaction by the cost.

Do you mean, having a tiered system of some sort? or a rough range of prices?

I do have a difficult time understanding why people compare things that are far off in price - like comparing a $10 tea with a $100 tea. Obviously the $10 tea has very little chance of competing.

Agreed, except that in some cases, the vendor is selling a $10 cake as $100.

No, what I meant was all the discussion of price and little on what the tea actually was like as it presented to each of the senses.
As in why not just steep currency and find out if $20's taste better than $5's.