Wednesday, June 05, 2019

New puerh auction record

10 years ago, I wrote this puerh auction article that gained lots of views. Before I state the latest records, let's quickly summarize the market for 'Hao' type puerh from the 1920-30s 10 years ago. (In those times, all the famous puerh brands had their name finish with 'Hao') So, in December 2008, a tong of puerh from the 1920s would cost 160,000 USD or 73 USD per gram.

These were the good old times when aged puerh was (almost) cheap! On May 27, 2019, the price of a Fu Yan Chang Hao tong was set at 3,3 million USD at this auction (including fees)! That's roughly 1300 USD per gram and 18 times more expensive than 10 and a half years ago! This is a new record for a puerh from this period. By contrast, a 1950s red mark puerh was sold at about 100,000 USD per cake or 275 USD per gram.

This price evolution shows how aged puerh has gained in fame in the last 10 years. It also shows that the pretty serious (= rich) puerh collectors are in China. And this also helps explain why the prices for fresh gushu puerh are continuously rising: because experts agree that the 1920s puerh companies pressed gushu leaves. This means that your gushu cake could be worth a fortune in a 100 years! You won't be there to enjoy it, but you could do what I did 15 years ago: purchase a tong for your newborn baby!

2 comments:

toni3d said...


Clever dad :)
How did puer prices behave after 2008 crisis?

TeaMasters said...

Plantation puerh had ups and downs.
But, as we can see from this auction and the one 10 years ago, aged puerh has simply gone up at a wild pace. There was no crisis for aged (gushu) puerh.