Chapter 374: Going In
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Harris’s side was bidding. Hans quickly followed, “30,000!”
Frank snapped his fingers and shouted, “31,000 dollars!”
Li Du nodded, and Hans continued, “32,000!”
When the prices came to this, it was basically a battle royale amongst these three superpowers. All the other treasure hunters had backed out of the competition.
There were several pieces of mahogany furniture in the unit. According to the current market, a full set of table and chairs made with mahogany could sell for up to 20,000 dollars in the US.
There were dozens of chairs and several tables. If they were all authentic, they would go for at least 100,000 dollars.
What was putting pressure on the treasure hunters now was that they had no confirmation of whether the things inside were authentic or not.
Whether they would make any profit from this would boil down to their eyes, sources, and experience.
To make an income from storage auctions, one should never rely on getting lucky picks. In other words, relying on lucky picks was never the true path of the storage auction business, because that meant they were relying on simple luck.
Lady Luck could smile on you once or twice; she might even bless you a third and fourth time, but she wouldn’t stay with you forever.
When Li Du had first joined the storage auction business, he had continuously experienced lucky picks and had made money off of them. However, his fame had now spread out of Flagstaff to Phoenix, mainly because of the time he caused Frank and York to suffer a defeat.
In the hearts of the treasure hunters, they were now thinking that he was relying too much on his luck.
With this conspicuous revelation of the mahogany furniture, luck couldn’t be relied on anymore, and what was being tested more were their eyes.
The treasure hunters could only try to discern whether the furniture was authentic or not, and how valuable they were, under the condition of being a distance away from the goods.
Most of them could not decide because mahogany furniture was something that rarely appeared in storage auctions. They were highly valued by furniture collectors, but in storage auctions, they were difficult to value.
Unable to put a price on them, the treasure hunters didn’t dare bid carelessly. If they had, the price of this unit would have already passed the 100,000 range.
Hans was also hesitant and asked, “Continue bidding?”
“Under 50,000, bid freely!” Li Du said.
Hans whispered, “What if they give up on the bid?”
“Then we’ll take the furniture. At most, we’ll use it for ourselves. Look, they all seem pretty good.”
Hearing that, Hans’s spirits returned and he yelled with his hand up. “Our final offer: 50,000 dollars!”
Chatters from the crowd could be heard:
“Fifty thousand dollars! D*mmit, I don’t even have fifty thousand dollars!”
“Is the furniture authentic? Looks like Boss Li and Big Fox are pretty confident in it!”
“God, this price is too risky. I think we should just watch, it’s not our stage to step on anymore!”
“If all the furniture is sold, how much could we make from it?” Harris asked Rick.
“There would be no problem getting 100,000 dollars,” Rick said.
“Then we’ll follow!” Harris said decidedly.
“I’m not sure whether they’re the real deal or not!” Rick said doubtfully.
“I’m sure that they are,” Harris said.
They didn’t even have their turn. Frank’s side shouted, “51,000 dollars!”
Rick gritted his teeth, yelling, “52,000!”
The auctioneer’s eyes had turned into slits from the large grin he had. He pointed to Rick’s side and shouted, “52,000 dollars, guys, we’ve reached 52,000 dollars, anyone want to go higher?”
Li Du shook his head. He and Hans backed out of the competition.
Frank and York were still hesitant. The two gave a timeout signal and then huddled together in discussion.
Seeing this, Li Du was stunned. “You can call for a timeout during a bidding?”
Hans said, “Whether it’s permissible or not, is completely up to the auctioneer. If the price is low, it normally isn’t be allowed. If the price is high, auctioneers tend to be quite willing to give timeouts.”
York had the same doubt as everyone else. “Forget it, buddy, the furniture might not be authentic.”
Frank exclaimed, “From the database that we have on mahogany, they should be authentic! Also, aren’t auctions meant to be risky? What, have you lost your guts?”
“No, I just don’t want to go in the red!” York shook his head as he said.
“We’ve made a profit from the silver,” Frank said. “We’ve already made at least several hundred thousand from Arizona. Why are you afraid of losing some money this time?”
“The thing is, when we bought that unit, we had full confidence in it,” York explained. “But for the furniture this time, are you confident in it?”
Frank shrugged. “Of course I’m confident. Look at this.”
He showed York a webpage. On it was a news article about a mahogany workshop clearing out their storage units.
Seeing that piece of news, York now had full confidence in it as well. He raised his hand and said, “55,000 dollars!”
Harris glanced to Rick. Rick had no choice; he gritted his teeth and yelled, “60,000 dollars! That’s my final offer!”
That made Harris greatly disappointed. “Are you a rookie? Exposing your final price like that?”
“I know what I’m doing,” Rick whispered.
Hearing him saying that it was his final offer, Frank jolted into action and called, “61,000 dollars!”
Thinking that he had secured the unit, Rick then shouted again, “Okay, 62,000 dollars!”
What he’d done was obviously despicable. The crowd started booing and Frank and York were enraged by him. “Despicable, that’s low of you!”
Rick remained expressionless and silent. Frank was even more exasperated now and shouted, “65,000 dollars!”
Seeing such, Rick shrugged and backed out of the competition.
Harris held him back and said, “D*mmit, you gave up on the unit?”
“There will be more later. From what I know, there are several units with mahogany furniture inside!”
Unit 41 was taken by Frank and York. The two gleefully high-fived. Apparently, they were very confident in this unit.
Next up was unit 42. The door was opened and again, several glossy and vibrant pieces of furniture appeared in front of them.
Frank was stunned. “F*ck, there’s mahogany in this unit too?”
York felt that something was amiss. “If it’s just one unit, it’s believable that the manufacturer forgot to clear it out, but two?”
Harris revealed a smirk. He patted Rick’s shoulder and said, “Nice, take this unit then.”
“Mr. Harris, I’d suggest that you give up on all of them,” Rick remained hesitant as he said. “I think that none of them are authentic because there’s too many of them!”
Harris was not a fool. With two consecutive units full of mahogany, he too felt that something was wrong.
As the treasure hunters queued up to view, Li Du queued up at the back of the line.
Once he stood at the entrance he looked around. He then said to the auctioneer, “Hey man, this won’t do. We can’t tell anything from the furniture just by looking in from the entrance. How about you let us in to see?”
“No,” the auctioneer said firmly, “don’t even think about it. Don’t you know the rules?”
