pjbooks Chapter 99 Antique Jewelry Worth 7000 Yuan
Chapter 99 Antique Jewelry Worth 7000 Yuan
Chapter 99 Antique Jewelry Worth 7000 Yuan
"OK, it's yours."
Upon hearing the offer of $400, Valentina was incredibly excited and picked up the board to make the deal.
This not only recouped the initial investment instantly, but also earned an additional $200. This isn't just opening blind boxes; it's like opening a gold mine.
"Sell what?" Ma Jieke overheard their conversation and roughly snatched it away. "You spendthrift woman, I think I'll just sell you!"
He gestured to her with his eyes to keep quiet, and said with a smile, "Friend, you're overthinking it at $400. If I put this up for auction on eBay, I could get at least $650 for it."
The video blogger was speechless. He thought he had found a great bargain, but he didn't expect the person to be so knowledgeable.
"Dude, I'll take it for $550. If you sell it online, the platform will take a cut, so you won't get that much."
The other party was clearly a shrewd person and knew exactly how to negotiate a lower price.
"One price, six hundred." Ma Jie didn't waste any time and got the snowball rolling first.
If I'm not mistaken, Valentina only has seven or eight hundred dollars on her at most. It would be awkward if she didn't have the money to buy a large shipment later.
"OK, six hundred it is, deal."
It was clear he really liked it; he immediately pulled out 600 yuan in cash and bought the large plastic sheet.
Valentina's hands trembled as she received the money, because according to the prior agreement, she was to receive 5% of the 600 yuan.
0%.
In just a few minutes, he earned a full $300. He was only making $20 an hour distributing relief meals in the poor streets.
And this is just one of the valuable items; there are still many undiscovered treasures in the LEGO box.
What happened next was simply unbelievable.
Ma Jieke's eyes are like a scanner. He picks up a building block, flashes it in front of his eyes, keeps the valuable ones, and throws the worthless ones on the ground. Whoever picks them up keeps them.
After working for about ten minutes, all that was left in the box were a bunch of minifigures and rare parts.
"Hey buddy, are you selling this Reverse Lightning? I'll take it for $40."
The video blogger just now wanted to buy something again, but a guy next to him intercepted him: "40 US dollars? Don't be ridiculous, kid, I'll offer 60 US dollars, sell it to me."
"I won't give you the $65."
"70 US dollars, I'm determined to get it!"
The two immediately started bidding for a rare DC minifigure.
In the end, the eldest brother, with his strong financial resources, bid $120 and successfully won the bid.
Ma Jie chuckled to himself, then picked up another exquisite One Piece minifigure: "Monkey D. Luffy, starting bid $50, anyone bidding?"
"Eighty." The eldest brother decided to make the final decision.
"And you, buddy?" he said, looking at the blogger with a sly grin. "Limited edition, you know."
"One hundred US dollars!"
"—One Hundred and Two."
"One hundred and fifty."
"One hundred and eighty!"
"Two..." The blogger wanted to ask for two hundred, but swallowed the words back. After all, the market for this stuff fluctuates a lot, and buying it for 200 would most likely result in a loss.
"One hundred and eighty once, one hundred and eighty twice, one hundred and eighty three times."
"Deal!" Ma Jie shouted enthusiastically, nudging the completely stunned Valentina with his elbow: "What are you standing there for? Take the money."
The same method was then applied to Jedi Knights, Iron Man, Sonic the Hedgehog—any popular IP had a price.
A group of enthusiasts were scrambling to buy it, and it sold out without any worries. The stall owner was so excited by it that he almost developed a case of "jade addiction".
Good grief, everyone else comes here to gamble, but you've come here to manage your finances?
In the end, the total sales, including the baseboard, minifigures, and special accessories, amounted to $1352!
After deducting the cost of 200 yuan, the net profit is 1152 yuan, which is divided equally among all people, with each person receiving 576 yuan.
Of the remaining Lego boxes, there were some that could potentially make money based on overall estimates, but the profit margins were too small to be worth the time to select.
Moreover, if you keep playing this game, the stall owner will easily become suspicious. Anyone who tries to exploit a loophole will be considered foolish.
They decided to leave the stall and find the next victim.
Although this place can't compare to Panjiayuan, it has a very complete range of goods, from large furniture and appliances to small watches and pocket watches. As long as you are willing to spend the time to look, you can always find something you like.
Stopping in front of a stall selling rare and exotic items, Ma Jie casually picked up a carved pipe, pretending to play with it while his eyes scanned the merchandise back and forth.
High-quality replicas of oil paintings, stamp albums, coins issued by the US when it was first established... all sorts of things, but they were all brand new, undisputedly new.
Just as I was feeling down, a piece of jewelry that looked very luxurious suddenly came into view.
This piece of jewelry is divided into two parts. The bottom part is a small tree made of silver-white metal, with many green fruits inlaid on the branches, which look like jade.
Next, a suffocating message appeared before us.
Antique platinum jade tree brooch: Originally made in the 1930s by an unknown Italian jewelry designer, estimated buyback price: US$6999.
Holy crap... How can they sell this at a street stall? Shouldn't it be displayed in a jewelry store?
The key issue is that they didn't even provide a jewelry box; they just left it crudely on the table. Could it be that...?
Even though he was used to great storms, he was still deeply shocked.
After calming himself down, in order to test whether his boss knew his stuff, Ma Jie didn't touch the brooch, but instead picked up a vintage flip-top mechanical pocket watch.
"Sir, how much is this pocket watch?"
"100 US dollars." The stall owner, a white man of about 60 years old, lay comfortably in a recliner and lazily raised his eyelids as he answered.
"Isn't 100 a bit expensive?" Even though Ma Jieke knew the real price, he still chose to take a small loss to lull him into a false sense of security: "How about 80? I still need to buy other things."
"Deal." The boss said readily.
"And this music box, and this brooch..."
"Pay first." Before he could finish speaking, the old man rudely interrupted, "I'm used to selling one item before talking about the next, otherwise my memory won't be able to keep up. I'm getting old, please understand."
"Okay." Ma Jie didn't think too much about it. There are plenty of old men like him in America, especially in the South.
After the money was exchanged, the old man spent another 70 on a music box. He stuffed the money into his pocket, wrote him a receipt on the spot, and smiled slightly: "Do you need anything else?"
"What about this one?" Having learned from the previous two experiences, Ma Jieke had a general idea in mind and casually picked up the brooch.
Judging from the situation, the old man definitely doesn't know much about the product, so it probably won't be too expensive, maybe around $150 at most.
As soon as he picked it up, the old man suddenly grinned smugly, saying, "Put it down, put it down, put it down. This is not for sale. Who told you to touch it?"
"Not for sale?" Ma Jie immediately realized something was wrong, while Valentina was still wondering, "Why are you displaying something that's not for sale?"
"What are you doing?" he said, taking the jade brooch back and tossing it into a small, antique-looking black wooden box. He then closed the lid and looked at Ma Jieke with utter disdain. "You should ask him. He knows best what's going on. You think you can get a bargain from me? Let me tell you, not a chance."
"Have you woken up from your get-rich-quick dream yet?" Seeing that he didn't speak, the white man continued: "If you've woken up, go back to school, go back to work. Don't always think about getting something for nothing. That will only make your life more difficult."
"OK, I've learned my lesson!" Ma Jie didn't waste any words, because it was obvious that he had encountered a sting operation.
They deliberately place valuable items on a street stall to attract your greed and attention. When you think you can get them easily, you've already jumped into an invisible net.
You can't even return the goods. It's a cash-on-delivery transaction, and they even gave you a receipt. They've blocked all your options.
This reminded Ma Jieke of a classic skit called "Selling a Cat," in which the seller used an antique bowl as a food bowl for the cat to trick buyers into paying a high price for the cat.
Ma Jie strongly suspects that this American old man got his inspiration from this: while other stall owners make money off customers, he specifically attracts middlemen to cheat them out of their money.
"What's wrong, Jack? Aren't these two things worth anything?"
Seeing him turn and leave, Valentina asked him with concern.
"The two items together are probably worth about sixty or seventy US dollars."
Ma Jieke was a little distracted, pondering how to get back at the top.
"Oh, doesn't that mean we lost over a hundred?"
Valentina was a little disappointed upon hearing the result. It seemed that even the most skilled appraisal expert couldn't guarantee a win every time. "If you lose, you lose. Understand? Don't bother me. Let me sort out my thoughts."
For Ma Jieke, losing money was no big deal, but hitting someone in the face was unacceptable, especially in front of a girl.
Moreover, no matter how you look at it, that old bastard did something dishonest. He claimed to be legitimately getting a bargain, but he was committing pure commercial fraud.
How is this any different from those places in Chinese tourist attractions that sell flavored beef jerky?
Just as he was racking his brains for a way to get back at the scene, he happened to run into the video blogger he had met before.
"Hey buddy, how's the harvest?" the other person greeted him warmly.
"Ugh, don't even mention it, I got ripped off." Ma Jie couldn't help but sigh. "Was it that strange old man with white hair? I saw you lingering at his stall just now." At this point, the guy smiled helplessly: "Everyone's the same. The first time I came here to shop, I got scammed too, losing a whole $300 and buying a bunch of junk."
"Damn it, why don't the market management do anything about this old swindler? Are they just letting him run rampant here?"
"There's nothing we can do, buddy. I heard he has really powerful connections here, and even the police can't do anything about him."
"Forget it, buddy. If you can't beat them, you can at least avoid them. Anyway, he can only fool you once."
Just as the two victims were exchanging their experiences, they heard a chaotic noise in the distance, as if a stall had been hit and thrown by a car.
A few seconds later, a dilapidated, large bread van suddenly rushed over and stopped. The door opened and people jumped out.
They were all black men, each with a cloth covering their face and carrying various weapons.
Behind them were large-capacity tactical backpacks, and even two supermarket shopping carts were unloaded.
Ma Jie's heart skipped a beat: Holy crap! We're going into a dungeon, guys!