I was poking around Ebay for tea pets and somehow found a listing for a yixing tea set. To my surprise, it was just up for bid from a US seller. The pictures were vague as it was just the set in the box and the information was lacking as there were no measurements or volumes listed.
I messaged the seller for more information and after 3 rounds of questions I still didn’t get the answers I was looking for. I first asked “What size is the tea pot and cups?” and the seller answered how big the cups were. I then asked “Tea pot – size, volume, is it painted?” and the seller answered with “Oh the cups are glazed white inside.” with a picture of the cup. I asked again about the tea pot – I got a picture of the pitcher, tea pot in the background and more pictures of the cups. Okay fine, I thought. I read the listing more closely and apparently the seller thought the set was just cups and 2 pitchers – he didn’t know that was a teapot! I didn’t want to deal with this seller anymore and I’ll just max bid lower than what I was willing to go up to.
I throw up my bid… and won as no one else bid. To my surprise there was no reserve so I won the yixing set for $6! ($15 total after shipping) Awesome!
The set ships right away and I’m excited. I wait for my mail guy all day, super excited to see if I scored a really sweet deal or got junk.
Then USPS flops. I didn’t get the package, despite it saying delivered. So, rule of thumb is 95% of the time a packaged marked delivered but isn’t is mis-scanned or put on the wrong truck and it’ll show up in a few days. Unfortunately for me, though a small sample size as 5 packages this year, 80% of the time it’s delivered to someone else’s house. My neighbours have been really great about returning parcels, so I waited. 3 days go by and nothing. I sent my mail man and USPS looking for it. I’m stressed out as I want my tea pot and hear nothing all week. I don’t care about my $6, I want my tea pot and I need to know if I got an awesome deal!
USPS takes their time calling me back. Last time I dealt this far they threw up their hands saying “We look and never found it here. It’s delivered. Oh well.” This time was different. The technology is here – they know who had your package and the GPS coordinates when they scanned it. He checks the coordinates, pulls it up on google maps and zooms in on the house number that the package was scanned at. Turns out, my misdelivered stat is now up as my yixing set was at another house a few streets south. USPS sent over my mail guy mid route to fetch. Turns out the the woman who got my package was very pregnant and due any day, so she was understandably very busy. My mail guy hands it to me and apologizing while I’m busy getting the package apart and trying to pull out the tea pot.
YES. It’s legit!
After that long tale, here is the Yixing tea Set:
I’m not yixing pot expert, but the tea pot looks machine or mould made. Thankfully, there’s no paint or other stupid junk like my crappy “yixing” tea pot.
It has a nice tall profile. Apparently this one is a good white/green/jade oolong pot if you go by shape. It’s bigger than what I liked clocking in at 250ml. Sigh. The lid fits nicely and makes a nice sound when removed. The pour is great too!
The tea cups are glazed white in the middle. A few got chipped during shipping as the seller doesn’t know how to use a crazy amount of tape and bubble wrap like tea sellers do. Ehhhh whatever. These cups are expendable to me.
The pitcher is surprisingly nice – it’s unglazed and has a nice attractive tall shape, good feel, and pour to it.
In the end, an Ebay win! Now what to season this pot with…
