The three of them were busy until the sun was almost setting before they finally opened all the suitcases for a check.
Worried there might be leftover graphics cards in the previous fifty suitcases, they took out and checked those as well.
In the end, they confirmed that only fifty suitcases contained graphics cards, each suitcase held three cards, all of them 2080 super.
A hundred and fifty graphics cards!
This is going to be a huge profit.
Chen Yiyang took several deep breaths before calming down.
"Drive the car to the city center first. I remember your van is still parked on the edge of the city, right?" Chen Yiyang asked Zhou Jianjun.
"Yes." Zhou Jianjun nodded.
"After we get there, Sun Xingguo and I will take your van to the city center, and you drive this truck to find a dump to dispose of all the suitcases."
"No problem." Zhou Jianjun nodded.
At that moment, he also realized his boss must have stumbled upon a great opportunity. But what does that have to do with him?
It's not illegal stuff, he can't just take a share.
Besides, if it were something illegal, he would just drive away; why get in trouble for a bit of money?
"Okay, thanks for helping." Chen Yiyang thought for a moment and directly transferred three thousand yuan to Zhou Jianjun. "This is your payment for today."
"That's too much," Zhou Jianjun quickly declined.
"It's not too much; you've been busy with this all day," Chen Yiyang patted Zhou Jianjun's shoulder.
The three of them put the suitcases back in the carriage and drove to the place where they had parked the van earlier.
After loading the hundred and fifty graphics cards into the van, Zhou Jianjun gave the car keys to Chen Yiyang and drove off to dispose of the now useless suitcases.
"Chen, where are we heading now?" Sun Xingguo asked.
Previously, he thought Chen Yiyang was in the same situation as him, someone who had nothing and was ready to start anew.
But now, looking at the situation.
They were quite different!
Even though he wasn't very familiar with graphics cards, he knew these hundred and fifty cards were definitely not cheap.
Moreover, it takes quite a network to come across such a big opportunity.
"Hold on, I'll make a call."
Chen Yiyang took out his phone.
"Hey, Hou, do you remember me? Zhang brought me over to buy a computer from you that day."
"Ah, it's you." Hou Haomin immediately remembered who Chen Yiyang was, "What's up, any issues with those two computers now?"
"No problem with the computers, it's just a friend of mine entrusted me to sell a batch of graphics cards for him. Do you have a way to help with this?"
"Graphics cards, which models?"
"Colorful's 2080 super, about eighty percent new. We can test them first."
"How many cards? If it's less than twenty, bring them over here to sell, I'll take them all." Hou Haomin said generously.
"One hundred and fifty."
"Whoa, did some internet cafe close down and you managed to pick them up?" Hou Haomin was also surprised by the number.
Although Hou Haomin's electronics repair shop has decent monthly profits and he definitely has the money to buy these hundred and fifty graphics cards.
But handling such a large amount would put considerable financial pressure on a single person, and the graphics card market changes rapidly, who knows if they might be left unsold for a while.
So after thinking briefly, Hou Haomin immediately said, "You should still bring the graphics cards to my place, and I'll call a few friends to wait for you to arrive."
When Chen Yiyang arrived at the old market in Guan City District with the graphics cards, Hou Haomin and three others were already waiting at the entrance.
"Take a look." Chen Yiyang got out of the car and opened the back of the van to show the graphics cards.
"Eighty percent new, looks like they were used for mining?"
After taking a quick look at the condition, the group instantly concluded these graphics cards were previously used for mining.
"Randomly select a batch to go up for testing." Hou Haomin said.
So they randomly picked ten or so cards and tested them.
Then Hou Haomin said to Chen Yiyang, "This batch seems like new cards repurposed for mining, but probably not used for mining for more than a few months. The quality is decent. What's your friend's asking price?"
"How much can you offer?" Chen Yiyang countered.
"The non-mining second-hand market price is around fifteen hundred." Hou Haomin informed Chen Yiyang, "These are mining cards, but the mining period wasn't long, and considering our own profit, how about nine hundred per card?"
"One thousand per card would be a round number," Chen Yiyang, who had observed the testing process earlier, countered.
Just as Hou Haomin mentioned, even though they were mining cards, the conditions were quite good and they hadn't been used for mining for too long.
Refurbish them and sell as nearly new for personal use would definitely work.
After hearing Chen Yiyang's offer, the group whispered among themselves and discussed.
These people all owned computer stores and had channels to handle this batch of cards.
Whether refurbishing them for personal use sales or directly installing them in assembled machines for sale would be convenient.
Purchasing at one thousand per card, and selling at an average of fifteen hundred, nets a profit of five hundred per card.
Both sides quickly reached an agreement.
They took all one hundred and fifty cards.
So Chen Yiyang and Sun Xingguo carried up the remaining graphics cards and tested them one by one.
It was only after they finished all the transactions late at night.
Fifteen thousand was directly credited to Chen Yiyang's account.
"Wanna go grab a midnight snack?" After the money arrived, Chen Yiyang asked Sun Xingguo, who was still accompanying him.
"It's so late already." Sun Xingguo saw it was almost midnight and said to Chen Yiyang, "I'm going to return the car to Zhou Jianjun. Chen, you should head back and rest early."
Ever since accompanying Chen Yiyang today, Sun Xingguo kept calling him Chen.
Although Chen Yiyang's current status is still that of a freelancer, he really enjoyed being called Chen.
Who doesn't like a bit of flattery?
The more flattery, the better. I love hearing it.
So Chen Yiyang transferred two thousand yuan to Sun Xingguo.
"Consider this today's effort fee, and if you could return the car tonight."
"Alright." Sun Xingguo nodded, preparing to leave, but stopped in his tracks and said to Chen Yiyang, "If you need any help in the future, just give me a call."
"Okay." Chen Yiyang waved goodbye to Sun Xingguo, then waited for a taxi by the roadside.
When he returned to his rental apartment, Hans, who had been hungry all day, immediately came over to flatter Chen Yiyang.
Before leaving in the morning, Chen Yiyang had prepared a big bowl of dog food and water for Hans. Now it was all gone.
So Chen Yiyang, struggling against sleepiness, poured a bowl of dog food for Hans.
Then, without waiting for midnight notifications, he just lay down and went to sleep.
The next morning, Chen Yiyang was awakened by Hans licking him.
"Hungry again?" Chen Yiyang looked at Hans, pacing back and forth beside the bed, but not daring to jump up.
"Woof, woof." Hans barked softly twice, then performed a running motion for Chen Yiyang.
"You want to go play outside, right?" Chen Yiyang recalled he didn't have time to walk Hans last night.
"Alright, let me eat breakfast first, then we'll go." Chen Yiyang checked the time.
It's just six in the morning, so taking the dog out wouldn't scare pedestrians.
He poured Hans another bowl of dog food, added a few freeze-dried morsels.
Chen Yiyang reheated the leftover buns from the morning before and started eating while checking his phone.
Today's intel, a painter turning over a new leaf: Jin City's Ning'an District Antique Street, the twelfth stall, features an authentic piece by the famous Zhang Jiuqian, purchase under ten thousand yuan to score a bargain.
This place looks familiar.
Chen Yiyang thought carefully and realized this wasn't the stall where he bought the original FM2 from that old man, right?
Has the old man got his hands on something good again?
Chen Yiyang opened his computer to check who Zhang Jiuqian was.
To his surprise, this search made Chen Yiyang question the reliability of the intel.
Zhang Jiuqian, currently a rising star in the contemporary book and painting scene. His most renowned piece, 'Black Soil,' was auctioned off domestically for a whopping one hundred twenty thousand.
More importantly, he's only forty years old currently!
To already be famous at forty in the art world indicates a promising future, and he cherishes his reputation greatly, producing only a few pieces annually.
Aside from 'Black Soil,' his other works average around fifty thousand each.
How could a genuine piece by such a contemporary artist end up on a market stall?
Chen Yiyang scratched his head.
However, the perk of contemporary artwork is that, though they don't fetch astronomical prices, you don't have to worry about buying fakes, since the artist is still alive.
All you need to do is contact his studio to verify if the purchased painting is genuine.
As per the encyclopedia, currently, only around twenty pieces of Zhang Jiuqian's work are circulating in the collectors' world.
That's worth checking out.
After breakfast, Chen Yiyang stretched lazily, then took Hans out for a walk.
After completing his exercise goals for the day, Chen Yiyang returned Hans to his rental before heading out to grab a shared bicycle.
It's a bit cold today. Chen Yiyang experienced the hard and uncomfortable seat of the shared bike while the cold wind whizzed by his face.
He started considering whether to buy a vehicle.
Even though a week ago he was a pauper hesitant about which factory to screw bolts in, but now with the system on his side, he dared envision a life with a house, car, and the joy of dating seven to eight girlfriends.
Successfully biking to Antique Street, Chen Yiyang didn't rush to that old man's stall but first strolled around the area.
Then deliberately passed by the old man's stall several times.
The old man's memory wasn't bad enough to forget someone who had traded money with him days ago.
So, after noticing Chen Yiyang circling the vicinity several times, he finally couldn't resist calling out, "Hey, young man, why not drop by my place?"
"Sir, you're setting up your stall here today?" Chen Yiyang feigned surprise as he turned around.
"What else?" The old man said, "I've seen you pass by me several times without even glancing this way."
"My bad, my bad." Chen Yiyang laughed as he crouched in front of the old man's stall, quickly scanning all the items there.
"Such a mix of random stuff, where did you dig all this up from?"