Nowadays, it's becoming increasingly difficult to buy good Tea from e-commerce platforms. Large stores have high overheads and offer low discounts on tea prices. Small stores may be cheaper, but they also come with many pitfalls; you could easily spend hundreds of dollars on tea that is only worth dozens or even just a few dollars.

Most tea merchants who own physical stores now also have their own small online shops on e-commerce platforms. These small online shops generally lack credibility, but they do offer a wide variety of products.
While some unscrupulous merchants use these shops for phishing, reputation cannot be faked. Note that I'm not referring to the product reviews here, as these can be manipulated through fake transactions.
Joining the right community is crucial when drinking Pu'er tea. Forums, community websites, and tea friend groups on Pu'er tea information sites are all great resources. While there are always merchants advertising, these places are also where you can get free tea samples. Since there are professional tea enthusiasts involved, ask them regularly where they buy their tea.

Generally, you will receive multiple recommendations, such as “The XXX tea from a certain merchant is good.” Considering the possibility of shills, it's important to ask around and observe. After all, most people share similar tastes. If a particular tea or store is recognized by many experienced tea enthusiasts, then such a store is definitely worth bookmarking, and the recommended teas in the store are certainly worth trying.
Some people like to choose tea based on price, which is a reasonable approach. On e-commerce platforms, apart from a few well-known, mass-produced teas from major factories, almost 99% of the exceptionally cheap teas are of poor quality. Creating a high-quality, cost-effective entry-level tea requires considerable patience and courage from the merchant, and in this fast-paced era, such merchants are rare.
If you want to buy Pu'er tea with a certain level of quality assurance, expect to pay over $100 for a 357-gram cake. As for high-priced teas, those costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, you should only consider them if you're on familiar terms with the owner or if it's a large company's official store on Tmall; otherwise, you risk paying a premium for low-quality goods.

This doesn't mean the tea is bad, but rather that a tea worth a few hundred dollars ends up being sold for several thousand.
When buying tea on e-commerce platforms, there's another point to keep in mind: avoid purchasing particularly cheap mass-produced teas. For example, a single cake of Dayi's 7542 normally sells for around $150, but if you find one selling for only $50, the product likely has storage issues or is counterfeit.
The wholesale prices of mass-produced teas are transparent, so there is rarely a significant price difference. (Source: Pu'er World; Image Source: ChaYou Image Library)