"Old man!"
"Hey~" Hearing someone call him, the half-asleep old man finally opened his eyes wide.
"How do you sell these things here?" Chen Yiyang didn't directly say he wanted to buy a camera, instead he asked about other things.
"I'm not the kind of person who cheats." The old man was quite straightforward, and said directly,
"All these things are picked up by me from residential areas, if you fancy any, just say so. I'll sell it to you for the price I collected plus a little bit."
"Let me take a look." Chen Yiyang glanced around and pretended to point at an old computer tower produced over ten years ago and asked, "How much is this?"
"I got it for two hundred, I'll sell it to you for two hundred and fifty."
"Old man, you're insulting me, aren't you?"
"Forgot you youngsters have this taboo." The old man thought for a moment and then said, "How about selling it to you for 249?"
This old man isn't honest at all.
Through this probe, Chen Yiyang instantly understood that this old man wasn't sincere.
With a computer like this, even if it can still turn on, its performance is so outdated that browsing a webpage would lag. Spending fifty bucks to get it would already be considered a high price.
Yet this old man quoted him a price of 250. He really took Chen Yiyang for a fool.
The tip from the bargain-hunting app suggested that buying it for under a thousand would be considered a good catch, anything over a thousand might not yield much profit even if it could.
If he were to ask for the camera's price, he would definitely be quoted over a thousand by this old man.
Chen Yiyang pondered for a moment and quickly came up with an idea.
"Old man, your prices are way off the mark."
"Then how much would you say?" The old man wasn't afraid of Chen Yiyang thinking the price was too high, he was worried that Chen Yiyang didn't intend to engage in a deal.
This old man has been mingling in Antique Street for years. He can distinguish between those who genuinely intend to buy something and those who are just there out of curiosity.
When Chen Yiyang walked over earlier, the old man sensed that he had the desire to buy something. Hence quoting a high price, preparing to haggle over several rounds with Chen Yiyang.
"Forget it, I'll look elsewhere. Keep busy, old man."
To the old man's surprise, Chen Yiyang had no intention of continuing to haggle with him, immediately stood up and turned away. The old man originally wanted to call out to him, but before he could say anything, Chen Yiyang had already disappeared.
After leaving the old man's stall, Chen Yiyang immediately went to carefully check out the other nearby stalls.
Since it's called Antique Street, most of the stalls are actually selling various antique artifacts.
Ninety-nine out of a hundred are fake. The remaining one real item is something with a large surviving quantity, hence cannot fetch a high price.
"Old man, how much for this plate?" Being idle, Chen Yiyang squatted down at a stall and asked.
"Eighty thousand." The stall's owner, a fifty-something uncle gestured with his hand indicating the price.
"Which era is this from?" Chen Yiyang picked up the plate to have a look.
"Never mind which era it's from, just look at this glaze, this quality. Do you think this is just ordinary pottery? Eight or ninety percent it's from official kilns. If I didn't urgently need money, I wouldn't sell it on a street stall. Several years ago, someone wanted me to auction it off in Hong Kong Island, and I couldn't be bothered to go."
"Oh." Chen Yiyang uttered an 'oh', then flipped the plate over.
Only to see the bottom of the plate boldly inscribed with the words "Microwave Oven Safe".
Chen Yiyang glanced at the words, then looked up at the stall owner.
"Don't mind the words, you should be looking at the glaze, young man, do you know what you're doing or not?" The uncle got agitated.
"You keep selling, I'll go look elsewhere."
Chen Yiyang wandered around again and saw a stall with various shaped stones. In the middle of these stones, there was a cardboard sign boldly inscribed with the words: Meteorite.
"Is this meteorite real or fake?" Chen Yiyang squatted down and asked.
"Don't mind if it's real or fake, just look at this shape, do you see stones like this on Earth?" The stall owner immediately spoke when he saw someone coming.
Why do you guys sound so alike?
After a moment of silence looking at these stones which seemed picked from some mountain ravine, Chen Yiyang said, "These stones of yours, they're not selling for eighty thousand too, are they?"
"The one you have is big, twenty thousand. The smaller ones over there are the ones selling for eighty thousand."
Upon hearing that this lousy stone was valued at twenty thousand, Chen Yiyang hurriedly put it down.
With a twenty thousand stone, he feared rubbing a little grime off it would cost him a few hundred.
Having circled around, Chen Yiyang suddenly felt the old man selling old goods seemed kind and amiable.
Although his prices were high, he didn't start with eight thousand right off the bat, did he?
Thus, Chen Yiyang obediently returned to the old man's stall.
"Back again hey." Seeing Chen Yiyang return, the old man's eyes widened once more, and he became even warmer than before.
It seemed after Chen Yiyang left, the old man still hadn't made a sale.
"After roaming around, the items being sold at these stalls are too pricey, it's still cheaper at your place old man." Chen Yiyang spoke honestly.
"You can't say that, after all, the stuff I sell is different from theirs."
The old man pointed to the computer just mentioned and smiled, "I see you're an honest young man. I'll sell you this computer for a hundred, how about it?"
"Forget it, this thing is too big, I can't carry it back easily," Chen Yiyang found an excuse to refuse the old man.
"What about this?" The old man took out an old-fashioned mobile phone.
"Grandpa, this is pure junk," Chen Yiyang said, half-amused and half-annoyed, "Don't you have anything more practical here?"
"Something more practical?" The old man glanced at his small stall a few times and naturally set his gaze on the mechanical camera on his stall.
"How about this? I got it for eight hundred, I'll sell it to you for nine hundred." The old man picked up the mechanical camera.
As soon as the old man quoted the price, Chen Yiyang immediately stretched his leg slightly, pretending to walk away.
"Seven hundred, seven hundred," the old man got anxious.
"Does this work well? Can it still take normal photos?" Chen Yiyang paused his action and started to bargain with the old man.
"It works great!" The old man said immediately, "I also got this from an old buddy. He said his son used to like taking pictures with this, but now he works out of town. He thought it took up space, so he sold it to me."
"Let me see," Chen Yiyang took the camera and pretended to examine it for a while. In fact, he had no idea how much it was actually worth.
Seeing Chen Yiyang's movements, the old man realized that Yiyang was not an expert, probably just a casual visitor who would buy something if he liked it and leave if he didn't.
So, after hesitating for a moment, he said, "Actually, I haven't opened shop today, we can negotiate the price."
"Three hundred."
"I got it for four hundred!" The old man got instantly alarmed.
"Didn't you just say you got it for eight hundred?"
"I misspoke, it was indeed eight hundred," the old man's wits hadn't dulled with age. He then said, "But young man, I think we were meant to meet. Alright then, I'll sell you this camera for five hundred, just to kick off business for the day."
"Alright," Chen Yiyang finally agreed this time.
Since anything under a thousand would be considered a bargain, buying it for five hundred meant a definite profit.
He paid the old man on the spot with a QR code. Chen Yiyang slowly walked out of the Antique Street with the camera in a plastic bag given by the old man.
At the busiest part of Antique Street, there was not a single stall selling antiques, just food carts of all varieties.
Indeed, rather than mining for gold oneself, it's more stable to sell water to those who do.
Of course, if those stall owners selling items for eight grand could find a sucker willing to pay eight grand, they could make back their costs in one deal.
Spending five bucks on two grilled sausages, Chen Yiyang munched away happily with his camera, then used a group-buy coupon to book a gaming hotel from the night before, and grabbed a shared bike to get there.
Though staying at hotels long-term wasn't a viable solution, he planned to calculate his average daily income in a week's time, then rent a conveniently located place to continue finding bargains.
After photographing the camera, Chen Yiyang searched for information about his newly purchased mechanical camera on second-hand sites and hobbyist forums, confirming it as the 1982 Nikon FM improved full-mechanical camera.
The one in Chen Yiyang's hands should be the FM2, featuring a shutter speed range of 15 settings and a maximum flash sync speed of 1/2000s.
The FM2 model camera was widely produced and highly coveted by film camera enthusiasts.
However, the one he was holding was an original FM2. As an early version, it was robustly built, and the top of the black model was metallic, giving it substantial collectible value.
On second-hand sites, the starting price for an original black FM2 had already been hyped to three thousand.
Since Chen Yiyang wasn't knowledgeable in cameras, although he bought it, listing it on a second-hand site could easily attract scammers who might negotiate the price hard, citing various issues.
Hence, to be safe, finding a local buyer would be best.
But who to sell it to?
Chen Yiyang thought of Zhang Guichen from Guihui Digital, who had paid briskly the previous day.
So he sent the camera photos via WeChat to this buddy.
"Hey brother, are you interested in an original FM2?"
"Brother, are you facing some trouble at home, selling such a collectible item?"
Zhang Guichen replied to Chen Yiyang's message in seconds.
"Yeah, I'm a bit short on cash," Chen Yiyang replied.
"My store doesn't sell such things, but I know someone in a local Jin City digital electronics trading group who deals with this stuff.
How about this, if you're free tomorrow, come by my store. I'll introduce you to some people. Bring your item too, and let them check it out in person."
"No problem," Chen Yiyang agreed.
He was quite interested in the digital electronics trading group Zhang Guichen mentioned.
In the future, when he finds related bargains, he could sell them offline to people from the group.
It's quicker to get paid this way, and it's safer, with fewer chances of running into scammers.
After all, second-hand sites now mostly have a ratio of five out of ten sellers scamming and eight out of ten buyers conning.
After sending the message to Zhang Guichen, Chen Yiyang waited past midnight for new notifications from the app while playing games.