There can be a few gems found here and there on Amazon. Perhaps my favorite "too good to be on Amazon" tea is this Taiwanese Sun Moon Lake Ruby 18 black tea. Its quality rivals some of the best I've found at the World Tea Expo.

I actually found a number of decent mid-grade cakes from odds and ends of vendors but also bought a lot of really low-grade and overpriced cakes to find those. And most of those good cakes are no longer being carried although here's a fun one they still have with unusual leaves. No well-aged or truly high-end cakes, but I did purchase some of the cakes I liked more than once.

I've had better luck finding surprisingly good blacks on Amazon such as a golden needle from Fullchea and a Ruby 18 that is much better than most direct from Taiwanese vendors.