TeaChat

From status update of Scott Wilson:

I won't offer Hai Lang Hao cakes this spring because his prices are too high!! $460, $500, $655, $655 and $790 per 400 gram cake.

Wow, those prices are ridiculous. Who will buy that?

To put this in context, Sanhetang's most expensive 2012 cake is a Guafengzhai and a Wangongzhai cake for $480.

I gotta believe that the 480 dollar XZH is way better than the 780 dollar HLH.

Also SanHeTangs most expensive cake is the same price as Hai Lang Hao least expensive

Well, that's not 2013, though. Betcha 2013 cakes may well cost more than 2012 cakes. However, if it really does, though, be advised that only a very few cakes cost more than $670 at the Sanhetang website. Of those actually listed on the website, only LBZ from 2005 and 2006 and a 500g Yiwu commemorative cake is offered. The 2007 expensive fengqing lincangs are probably that much, as well. And Sanhetang just increased their prices last month. Not sure they will increase again when they introduce the 2013 line of tea.

Also, I'm not sure if I ever made this point with any force...

There is an upper limit to how much people will pay for puerh tea, especially younger tea. It's roughly about $350/400g. Beyond that limit, only the rich will buy that tea, and it's pretty easy to saturate rich people's demand for high quality tea. Thus, after a year or so, the expensive tea that's left gets neglected until a new crop of rich people (and a new marketing effort) come onto the scene, wanting fancy tea. So most older truly good tea (absent very famous teas like the '99 Yiwus with good storage) becomes illiquid. Nobody sells the tea unless you make a pretty good offer, UNLESS, they are hard up for money. Then you see really good stuff for what seems to be absurdly low prices for what they are.

So if you like expensive young tea and want to buy some, but don't want to pay totally huge money, you watch and wait for people who are hard up at the moment. Then hit the tea hard.

Old tea? You're on your own. Watch out for the fakes.

He definitely means USD and not RMB?