Used Yixing

[HeinzFrick]

I almost think these were worth more money before the shoe polish was put on them!

[TomVerlain]

might be used motor oil -

People have used denture tablets for cleaning porcelain, try toothpaste or baking soda for a mildly abrasive cleaner. In any case, you might want to keep them as decorative items instead of brewing tools.

[TIM]

I almost think these were worth more money before the shoe polish was put on them!

I won't spend too much energy cleaning them. Could be some great pots for growing orchids. At least you will have a Master Chen's pot with beautiful flower growing out of it

[HeinzFrick]

So now I've got questions;

1) Is that pot/clay really that embarrassing that some bellicose bumpkin has to go through all that asinine horse crap with shoe polish to scam 60 bucks out of someone? That guy must really be desperate.

2) What in the world is the purpose; to make it look old, to hide crap clay. to hide fake clay, to hide flaws?

3) If the guy wanted the items to appear really old, why didn't he put a $500.00 dollar price on them?

So I think this topic is about potted out for me...can some one point me to the correct thread where I can get some advice on getting a real pot. Man, what a bunch of pot heads in here....

Thank you all for your expert advice/comments, I am getting the feeling that this is gonna be a long fun journey...

H

[the_economist]

very long. i barely have a headstart.

for one, look out for the pots of Tim, tingjunkie and other more learned teapeople in 'show off your yixing' thread. I found that it helped me some with understanding what good clay should look like, and what qualities a pot should have.

Also, there are dozens if not hundreds of yixing threads on the forums. do a search and read em all

finally, to answer your question: yes they are shoepolished to look old. it appeals to people looking for a bargain, and the clay is generally really quite bad (more mud than clay). 500 cannot attract the casual buyer i guess. most people make mistakes on their first pots, no fear!

[HeinzFrick]

Thank you the_economist, good advice...

H

[MarshalN]

I've posted quite a number of times about yixing pots on my blog.... there are plenty of pics there, so you can take a look

http://www.marshaln.com/tag/yixing/

[Drax]

2) What in the world is the purpose; to make it look old, to hide crap clay. to hide fake clay, to hide flaws?

My guess -- to make people more likely to buy it. You get a similar phenomenon with counterfeit teas (particularly pu'erh), where thieves use fake wrappers and tickets to make their tea look like from a main-stream company. The fake tea may actually be good. So why do they do it? Selling in volume -- people are more likely to buy a name-brand they know instead of an unknown (even if it's good).

3) If the guy wanted the items to appear really old, why didn't he put a $500.00 dollar price on them?

My guess -- because people will ask for their money back. If you buy a pot for $10 and later find out it's not as old as you were told, you probably think "well, it's still a nice pot for $10." Try going through that mental process with $500...

Most likely the vendor makes some vague claims about the age (or not at all, and lets the buyer assume it's old). In another recent thread here, somebody confronted a vendor, who replied that the pots weren't for brewing tea, but for display purposes only....

[tingjunkie]

for one, look out for the pots of Tim, tingjunkie and other more learned teapeople in 'show off your yixing' thread.

Aww shucks. If you put my name up there with Tim's as an expert, I must be doing a good job fooling people! I'm still just barely past first grade in Yixing school, but definitely listen to TIM, Chrl42, and MarshalN. Whole lot of knowledge there!

[tingjunkie]

In another recent thread here, somebody confronted a vendor, who replied that the pots weren't for brewing tea, but for display purposes only....

Oooh. Missed that one. Do tell!

[Drax]

In another recent thread here, somebody confronted a vendor, who replied that the pots weren't for brewing tea, but for display purposes only....

Oooh. Missed that one. Do tell!

Found it. It was Herb Master telling his experience with shoe polish pots.

[HeinzFrick]

Had a brutal day at work, no time to post...however... I did have time to BLAST the guy about his 150 year old authentic teapot fakes via ebay email system....the back and forth volley was a hoot and I will post it here later tonight.... And I actually had an idea of maybe posting all three on eBay and list them ans ShoePolish FAKE teapots starting bid $1.00 and list the originating source as the original seller with links to the same item on his eBay store... Also, he did in fact offer me all my money back but didn't mention anything about shipping.

Cheers,
H

[MarshalN]

Take the money back, don't be silly. You don't want the pot

[gingkoseto]

Based on the item description, I think you deserve full refund including shipping. But did you read sellers' feedback before buying? When I buy from ebay type of websites, depending on situation, I may still buy from sellers with negative feedback, but I would read the negative feedbacks carefully and see where they are from

[tingjunkie]

Also, he did in fact offer me all my money back but didn't mention anything about shipping.

Count yourself quite lucky and take that offer. The shipping is a very small tuition indeed.