Monday, October 20, 2008

Empty Tea Pots and the Financial Meltdown





Over the past 10 days the buzz has been the American Financial Meltdown of the Markets. Every time I go online my homepage fills with more and more news about the New York Stock exchange, about bad mortgages , about the market up 900 points the market down 700 points. As I go to my favorite tea blog sites and read, I am greeted with a feeling of uncertainty and fear, a general consensus of don't buy any more tea pots and gaiwans, SAVE YOUR MONEY for more tea. Well having escaped from taking companies public and having retreated to the woods; I am somewhat of a contrarion . Great market strategies have been to "buy when there is blood in the street" , so off to E-bay street I go. There are hundreds of Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, tea sets, tea pots, gaiwans, and celadron vessels. Lots of material starting at .99 cents , many being over 150 years old. Over 7000 different pieces within this category alone this week. It is plain to see not much is being bid upon, in fact very little at all. I start to enter an array of bids on items for the lofty sum of .99 cents, determined that i will bid no higher and that the shipping costs will be no great than 10.00 Ah yes some ancient ginger jars starting at the same price, great to store some of that loose aged pu-erh, Oh and a few of those beautiful hanging scrolls starting at 4.99, yes that would be cool, maybe even design a small tea room in the corner of the cabin . Lofty thoughts. Taking a different path makes one question his sanity. A budget of 200.00 , Hmm one good tea pot can easily run more than this. Will I win any of these auctions. It will be interesting to see how this week plays out, with all my bidding ending before the eve of this coming Sunday. Yes I strongly feel that this might be the time to acquire and not to sell. Having little to no tea ware, my hopes are to be able to reach a higher appreciation of the art of tea, and perhaps some of these potential purchases will help me gain a higher appreciate for this art.

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