Do photographs help you decide which teas to buy?

[onjinone]

It's a toss up but slightly better quality photos/packaging do tend to make me question everything more. Simply based on the logic that's if you have the resources to produce something that looks great, then that means you should theoretically be able to provide decent quality tea to live up to that but in reality that doesn't always happen.

However, there's a ton of tea from China and Taiwan where photos doesn't matter as much as it would in the West since people tend to buy in person, so both photos and packaging are more generic because the required effort isn't as necessary.

In short, I just go with whoever I trust. This usually happens after I've tried some samples and think it's ok, so then photos become less relevant but there are also times where I do rely on photos a bit more if I know absolutely nothing.

[hopeofdawn]

It's a basic tenet of online marketing--if you're going to sell something, you will get a LOT more sales if you have pictures up. Doesn't matter what it is, cars, houses, or tea. Humans are just wired to assess things visually.

That said, I mostly check pictures to see if they match up with the description. For instance, if I'm buying a top tier OB, the pictures better show curly dry whole leaves with lots of silvered edges, and other signs that it's well made. And if what I receive doesn't match those pictures--well, then Houston, we have a problem.

Regarding extra cost--taking decent digital pictures and putting them online takes more time than $$$, it's pretty easy to do. I'm more skeptical of sellers with super-slick websites and fancy graphics everywhere--chances are they paid a lot more for that than for their photos!