ginseng myths??

[foxcatcher1]

When I first started digging Ginseng I was told that if you dug a root that was the shape of a person it was worth a large some of money. My friend was telling me as we were digging roots on a hill side. I kid you not as he was telling me I pulled a root out of the ground that had a head on top two arms under the head and two legs attached to a short body. I asked if that was what he was talking about and he said no it needs to look more like a person. (looked just like a person to me) I let him dry and sell all the root that year as I didn't know how to dry it. I'm not for sure if he might have slid that one to the side and made a little extra cash or not. Anybody know of weird little myths like this???

Don

[bobwendt]

that might be true at the last grading in china. I`ve never heard any price differential to the digger. I`ve often thought if a dealer hand carried 25 lb dry to hong kong ( fly with it and never let out of site), he might find he could sell for 10 times the going rate here by shopping it around here and there. or just going to little china in san francisco even. about all the chineses tores there sell real dried root. I was there and saw it, it`s a huge place too, about 1/2 the city it seemed, like a foriegn oriental country. and what you want to bet not a single one has a dealers lisc or the feds ever bother them either.

[wayne]

I've seen references to that before. That roots that resemble the whole body or specific parts sell for more. Never sold any like that so I cannot say for sure.

[doyleflory]

I have been told that too but that only at special sales in china and the root has to be really good to bring the big bucks.I saw one that had the head two arms legs and a thingy?
I wonder if they got more from that.
Chances are it broke of before it got there?

[DaveM]

I found one about 20 years ago. 2 legs, two arms, and a head, but no thingy. ;D

I know I kept it for 4 or 5 years . Dont know what became of it. I finally threw it in with the rest and sold it or chewed it or made tea when I was sick or couldnt get up or something.

[bobwendt]

I use to dig down by you some dave. lot of small round little roots. nothing big ever was found and I beat around most every woodlot. theres seng there, but the little knobby stuff. poor soils maybe. finding an ungrazed woodlot is tough anymore.

[DaveM]

Yep this is small root area.
I dont know, I always blamed it on the hard clay soil.

[K9Wolfer]

Buyers grade and sort root and the better older root brings more money this way.

[bobwendt]

why is a price always paid or quoted / lb , sight unseen? I always only dug big 3s or 4s with long necks and age, but have yet to get a premium. are my buyers just hosing me? if seng is $800 a lb ( the price being bantered around now) why isn`t mine the $2,000 a lb stuff while some 5 year old neck diggr gets $100 a lb ? I`d think they would grade it like fur, walnut logs or anything else, but never hear anything except xxx/lb.

[K9Wolfer]

Bob they dont tell you they sort and sell separately to the Chinese they make their profit that way.

[furbuy46]

yepper I am a millionaire now. Wow all thos special deals the Chinese have given me on those big roots. You guys need to find you some chinese buyers and sell some of those big roots for big profits. Funny thing is, once they have hand picked all the nice stuff from your collection, then nobody else wants the other stuff. Also don't make no difference if they are 3 or 4 or 5 prong roots, you still will have undesireable roots in your collections.

[furbuy46]

One other thing ya might think about here is this. It takes quite a bit of time to go through a couple lbs. of seng and grade out all the perfect seng. Also while you are doing this, you might just happen to break off a few necks on your seng. Hate to tell you guys this, but once the neck on that nice piece of seng is gone, the chinese buyer don't like it anymore. I let a chinese guy pick roots one time in my buying years. It will never happen again. They will snap small sucker roots off the main root, break any and all small arms comming off the neck of the root, also defiber the root and then leave you setting with crap ya can't sell. So yepper, by all means, go find yourself a Chinese buyer and let him pick the good stuff. He might offer you a whole 50 bucks a lb. more for your good stuff, but the next guy will offer you a couple hundred a lb. less on the remainder.

[K9Wolfer]

Yup I realize the sorting business in Sang and it doesnt bother me, thats they way it should be done.... Diggers they dig and dry everything and sell it all thrown together diggers dont think yah this one should be worth more its bigger than that little 8 yr old 3 pronger they just dug 30 mins earlier we mostly just put in the pouch and and keep on zig zagging up and across the hill till we are done for that day a digging.

[furbuy46]

Actually the price is based on the bigger roots. If a person brings me a bunch of smaller typ root, he gets less that the price I quoted. Also if he has root that is not legal, he gets to take it home. Believe me when I say, you don't want to go monkeying around with no bunch of seng roots. You handle the dang stuff to much, and you are going to ruin it. The buyers don't like seng that has been picked through or played with. Can I tell if somebody has topped a bag of seng? you bet I can. My buyers can also tell. So if you think your getting screwed at over 8oo a lb. on your roots, just try topping the stuff once and see where it gets you.
Wolfer I think you sell to Alan. Ask him what he thinks of somebody topping their seng on him. Also ask him what he thinks about people going through a bag of seng and causing the necks to get broken off the roots from handling it to much.

[K9Wolfer]

I always thought that law about Necks is crazy Come on you know if you put delicate dried Seng root in a 55 gal barrel like Magee's used to do its gonna crack off the necks. I guess thats why Hsu's Likes to buy it green.