The price gets set about 3 weeks into the season after everyone calls everyone else and finds out what they are paying. There is no 1 entity that sets the price, if there is his name is HSU. A dealer that i know gets his price from his buyers, he gets a general price and then is told to buy as low as possible, if the flow of ginseng is a trickle then they slowly bump up the price, if they start to get flooded then they drop the price. The point is there is such a huge markup that it is a win win for everyone except the digger.