by shah82 » Jun 27th, '11, 11:15
I suspect Hou De doesn't stock very many because Hou De isn't well financed enough to hold a great deal of high priced puerh especially long, and XZH is extremely expensive. Alternatively, they purchase items if the wholesale price is good and don't if the wholesale price is bad. In the end, if you want other XZH (and if I had money, I'd want some too), I think the best way to work is to google the chinese characters for Sanhetang and click on various links until you can get into the online shop (the front page will not link properly to it)--and see what the company has in stock at what price. Not everything from '10 is in stock, and I've yet to see anything from '11 with online pictures. Then get a group of people together and show Guang/Irene a prebuy list for whatever items you see is available which you guys want. That would work best, I think.
Just remember, XZH these days is insanely expensive. Last year, their signature products was a calligraphy edition of LBZ, GFZ, and one other I couldn't make out, and these were over $230/400g. They all sold out, pronto. HouDe is selling the LBZ/Yiwu brick for $30 less than what it is in the shop in Taiwan. The log sells for less here, too. Assuming that you aren't so stocked up that you can afford to wait for the inevitable bubble pop and want to pay high prices, go for the 2011s, I think.
Gasninja, the lbz/yiwu isn't mature enough to have a great deal of flavor, given what I read from reviews. That's really an ager type deal.
