There is no fixed price on vintage and antique items. Prices are what the market is ready and willing to pay. A 30 US$ difference is not overpriced, i have seen western oriented vendors selling for a lot more, and i have seen many fakes sold as the real thing (as we have seen at the beginning of the thread here).ShuShu wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:56 am
I said *somewhat* overpriced. The price on many pots is decent but not with all. Check this one for example, the price is almost $190 (138gbp). to the best of my relatively little experience I have seen these pots in $30 less....
https://www.essenceoftea.com/teaware/cl ... -1137.html
Then it depends on the source. EoT buys mostly in Malaysia as it is located there, which is not the cheapest market, but relatively safe as concerns authenticity. Thailand is much cheaper, but very difficult to authenticate. China is often very expensive, as i heard, as many Chinese traders buy in Malaysia and Taiwan (which bought up Thailand's market for several decades).
Lets also not forget that the western oriented market for Yixing is a tiny segment, and that the vast majority of vintage pots offered are the lowest segment and the start of vintage Yixing pots. 30 US$, i am sorry to say, is small change there in a market that deals with pots worth hundreds, thousands and ten thousands of US$.
Especially for a beginner it is better to buy from trusted vendors, even if for a small premium, and pots where one can be sure to get authentic ware. For good deals i would NOT go to any vendor that i do not know, and whose expertise i doubt, especially if the pots are too cheap. What appears cheap may in the end turn out to be a lot more expensive than what may appear expensive (as we saw here). For deals i stroll through flee markets here in the west, where for example the other day i bought for almost nothing a pot that turned out to be a 70's F1 worth hundreds because the seller had no idea what he sold.