Pu-erh Identification Game

[Maitre_Tea]

Hi, I was wondering if there's anything funny-looking about this cake. I actually know the supposed year and make of this cake (according to the vendor), but I want to hear some opinions w/o knowing the age or price.

[MarshalN]

Lemme guess... the vendor claims this is the real McCoy Yellow Label, and wants 50k RMB for it.

Somewhat wet stored, has some age, although probably not nearly as old as the vendor claims. Colour on the back is a little funny. Any shots of brewed leaves?

[Maitre_Tea]

actually, this guy a little more "honest"

288 RMB for a '93...no shot of leaves, but they have a photo of the tea infusion, which brews up a darkish "typical" of aged teas. I'm a little less worried about wet storage than the possibility of getting conned. The back does look a little weird though, as does the entirely rusty-orange color of the leaves.

There are some close-up photos of the leaves, which have white frosting.

Does it not look its age?

[TIM]

actually, this guy a little more "honest"

288 RMB for a '93...no shot of leaves, but they have a photo of the tea infusion, which brews up a darkish "typical" of aged teas. I'm a little less worried about wet storage than the possibility of getting conned. The back does look a little weird though, as does the entirely rusty-orange color of the leaves.

There are some close-up photos of the leaves, which have white frosting.

Does it not look its age?

So... are you getting it Maitre?

[Maitre_Tea]

maybe, depends on the opinions of our resident experts here

I'm stocking on some tuos that I ordered before and liked, and I'm just browsing around for some stuff. I'm mainly looking for older (90s, 00s), slightly wet-stored stuff that's cheap (older and cheap, surely that's an oxymoron!)

[MarshalN]

Looks risky to me. I found the original listing, and the white frost is pretty evident. Have you bought from this seller before? One way to see is if you can get a sample of the tea first.

[Maitre_Tea]

Yeah, the whole thing seems suspicious. I haven't bought from this particular vendor before. Do vendors often sell samples on Tao Bao? If it's not listed can you have it arranged through the agent?

PS: Is this an instance of the price being too good to be true?

[MarshalN]

Price does seem a little too good to be true. You're more likely to encounter genuine too good to be true prices for younger cakes -- those are more flexible. For older stuff, especially if it's really early 90s, there's no way it'll sell for that low.

[IPT]

The price is really low. Of course the person might just want to unload his tea, as many dealers have been doing since the Puer crash, but the color of the leaves look very odd to me. I, personally, wouldn't purchase this tea with out a sample first.