Bought a cake on ebay for pennies

[argus]

Just bought this cake on ebay for 1 cent + postage so I'm wondering what tea is it since most of the text is in chinese and the item description isn't very helpful

[bearsbearsbears]

Raw pu'er cake titled "Bulang Mountain Ancient Tree"
Top says: "Menghai 'Seven Sons' Cake"
Bottom says: "Yunnan Wang Nian Qing Tea Company"

[argus]

thanks a lot man!

btw i enjoy your blog

any thoughts on the cake?

[bearsbearsbears]

thanks a lot man!
btw i enjoy your blog
any thoughts on the cake?

Thanks!

My only thought is: if it was stored all 4 years in HK, maybe you'll see some evidence of aging. Could be interesting.

[msurads06]

I would definately be interested to know how this works out for you, have you made similar purchases off ebay before? Please let us know how quality is when you get the cake, i checked out the vendor and most of his teas dont show more than the wrapper. Has anyone else had experience with these super cheap teas?

[tingjunkie]

I have to question the motivations of a person selling a pu cake for 1c. How much does each eBay listing cost the seller? Are they selling you a $5 cake and adding an extra $12 in shipping costs? Just too weird. Maybe it's a cursed cake, like the Simpsons episode about the free trampoline!

[argus]

I just went for it so we'll see... I'll post my experiences with it when it arrives.

I do order from ebay regularly since its the only way I can get good tea in my country and didn't have problems before.

Some of the sellers ocassionaly put up auctions for 0.01$ because it attracts traffic to their store and a couple of cakes won't make them go broke. One other option is that they're clearing out or its some fake/bad tea but for 10$ with shipping I'll take the risk.

[TwoPynts]

...Maybe it's a cursed cake, like the Simpsons episode about the free trampoline!

Hahah, excellent!
Make a Family Guy reference next, you know like when Peter gets in a fight with the Chicken!

[Herb_Master]

mmmn Just when I saw something I wanted

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13609
Re: How you decide whether it is real or fake?

Interesting that the apparently fake 7542 is 902 and not 901.

Some more disturbing facts:

Same vendor, cbring630, has an ebay store: http://stores.ebay.com/cbring630

2007 7562 also looks suspect. Didn't bother to look at any others.

Vendor has 429 positive feedback and not a single negative one. 100% positive.Wow.

I may still take a plunge

[Drax]

The vendor doesn't seem to list the years of any of the teas.

I wouldn't worry about it... (:

[rabbit]

I'm interested to see the tasting notes.

[tingjunkie]

One other option is that they're clearing out or its some fake/bad tea but for 10$ with shipping I'll take the risk.

Not a bad call. I'm sure you will learn something from the experience one way or another. $10 is a pretty cheap tuition.

[argus]

That's my line of thinking too

[krouncha]

I just received a cake of Wuliangshan puer from the same seller: cbring630. googlegoogle88529 is also selling the same cakes. I'm new to puerh and only have experience with the older, aged shengs but I want to try new things. Wow, some of them are too astringent for me.


The first five steepings were way to astringent for me. The sixth and seventh gave way to a bit of sweetness and something else trying to peep up but there wasn't enough of it grab me for more than 7. Its not bad but I don't think I'll order more.

[argus]

That would be normal for a 2009 cake. Its too young to be pleasantly drinkable