Ebay Vendor in a Time Warp

The world of internet tea buying is never so straight forward.  Good vendors can often have very good teas but also some mediocre teas and occasionally insipid teas.  Bad vendors can have overpriced mediocre teas and blatant fakes, but still give a good bargain from time to time.  No single vendor has predominantly consistently fantastic teas that will match your palate- and at least not for tolerable prices.

I've been circling around this Hong Kong based eBay vendor for quite a while now.  Their ridiculously low prices on aged cakes should pump your suspicion glands to bursting but can 3000+ happy customers(99.7%) be so wrong?   Repeat buyers pithily tout the soundness of this vendor with glowing testimonial such as "AAA+++". I had to restrain myself from loading up my shopping cart, but I know better not to be too hasty.

Since I could not find any blog or forum discussions on this vendor, I've been trying to sleuth out any signs of suspicion.  For starters,  do you see what I see? 

 

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Is it coincidence so many neifeis are so occluded? Also I remember that Keyixing was meant to be drunk young so it's probably stale beyond consumption. But this does not mean that this vendor does not carry some worthwhile cakes.  I'm mainly looking for a mid-range youngish cake that had it's early life in humid storage. Young big factory cakes appear to match market prices but they have an abundance of pre 2006 cakes for time warp prices.  The trick to finding the wothwhile fake which is all roulette.

Luckily, the vendor offers a dirt cheap 15 sampler pack(9g each) spanning 1990s-2013;  $13 including shipping is my ticket to ride. Just this list is not for real at $13.

• No.1  1990s Zhongcha Red Seal Pu'er Tea Ripe  
• No.2  2000yr   Zhongcha Red Seal Pu'er Tea Raw  
• No.3  2005yr    Zhongcha Green Seal Pu'er Tea Raw  
• No.4  2006r   Changtai Group Lion Cake  Pu'er Tea Raw  
• No.5  2012yr   Glutinous rice fragrant flavor Pu'er Tea Raw 
• No.6  2013yr   Yiwu Mahei Pu'er Tea Raw  
• No.7  2008yr Yunnan Yuechenyuexiang  Pu'er Tea Ripe 
• No.8  1990s Yunnan Aged Pu'er Brick Tea Raw Brick 
• No.9  1990s Yunnan Aged Pu'er Brick/7581 Pu'er Tea Ripe Brick 
• No.10 2001yr Yunnan Changtai Group Pu'er Brick Tea Raw Brick  
• No.11  1990s Yunnan Xiaguan Tea Factory Frist Grade Pu'er Tuo  
• No.12  2009yr Yunnan Menghai Tea Factory V93 Pu'er Tuo Tea Ripe Tuo  
• No.13  2000yr Yunnan Zhangxiang Flavor Pu'er Tea Ripe Loose  
• No.14  2004yr Yunnan Laochatou Pu'er Tea Ripe Loose  
• No.15  2006yr Yunnan Pu'er Tea Brick/7581 Pu'er Tea Ripe Brick 

We'll see how this all pans out. The tea has arrived in the San Francisco mail facility last night from last week's order so I'll be brewing up all weekend.