Not trying to really discredit anyone by posting this, but the real price of things on the China wholesale market is jaw dropping.
http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_det ... 2e372b.htm
http://cgi.ebay.com/Da-Hong-Pao-Clay-Dr ... 634.c0.m14
The difference you will notice is an additional line of text on the bottom and the handle. They failed to make the rest identical, but pretty close.
We often find two identical pots with a different number of chops - Rishi and TeaMasters seem to sell pots from the same maker, except TeaMasters has an additional chop. Are these things from the same factory and even same "molds"?
I have one of the pots from Scott and it even has a large chop on the inside of the body. Chops everywhere! Maybe the factory has a problem with losing their artists/"blueprints"?
You will remember that the provenance of clay in the "real" pot is in question as well.
Mar 1st, '09, 11:59
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Mar 2nd, '09, 20:11
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Indeed, stuff in China can be obscenely cheap if you know what they're actually charging - though Westerners will be charged western prices until they figure it out. That's why I'm not terribly surprised by the likes of zen8tea's prices, although from what I understand there are some things that really aren't marked up all that much that only the rich in China can afford over there.