RBCT Chapter 41: The Monkey Starts Doing Somersaults
Chapter 41: The Monkey Starts Doing Somersaults
Sunday, August 19th, Shanghai Lu Gong Stamp and Coin Market.
Every Sunday, Ge Changli makes sure to visit Lu Gong, a habit he developed after starting his stamp collecting career. Lu Gong is a great place for stamp collectors, where they can find the stamps they want and also sell off some of their surplus stamps.
However, after arriving at Lu Gong this time, Ge Changli found that the whole market was a bit strange. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he had a vague feeling about it.
To confirm his feeling, Ge Changli decided to find a few familiar mail vendors to test the waters.
Following the bustling crowd in the market, Ge Changli walked to a stall and greeted the stall owner, "Old Sun, business is good!"
The stall owner, surnamed Sun, was busy trading with a mail vendor from out of town when he saw Ge Changli and said apologetically, "Mr. Ge, please take a look for a while. I have some things to attend to."
"You go ahead with your work, I'll take a look myself first." Ge Changli casually squatted down, took a small stool from the stall owner, and stuffed it under his buttocks.
Ge Changli pretended to look through the stamp albums displayed on the plastic sheet, but his ears were perked up as he listened to the conversation between the stall owner surnamed Sun and the out-of-town stamp dealer.
"Old Sun, add a little more. I've been running around collecting these things; I should at least earn some extra money, right?"
"The price I gave you is already very fair! Besides, I don't care how much you paid for it, but you definitely make more than me. To be honest, I'm just a middleman; I only make about two yuan per ticket."
"Old Sun, stop being modest. Who would believe a big boss like you only makes two dollars per ticket?"
"Oh my, I can't reason with you. If I were the boss, would I still be setting up a stall here? Help me out, I would have rented a storefront and opened a shop long ago." The postal vendor surnamed Sun casually pointed to the storefronts surrounding the open-air market.
"Old Sun, why is everyone in the market buying up '80 monkeys' lately? Is there some inside story?"
The mail smuggler, surnamed Sun, muttered and cursed as he pressed buttons on his calculator: "What inside story?! He's like a lunatic, doing things on and off, one minute he wants it, the next he doesn't. If I don't handle things right, I might end up stuck with these. Do you think it's easy for me to earn just two yuan from you?"
Upon hearing this, Ge Changli immediately recalled what Huang Xiaochuan had told him more than a week ago. Could it be that someone had really started to manipulate the market and hoard goods?
To confirm his doubts, Ge Changli stood up and greeted the postman surnamed Sun: "Old Sun, you go ahead and do your work. I'll go take a look around and come back later."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Ge, I've been really busy today and haven't been able to take good care of you."
Ge Changli waved his hand casually: "It's nothing, I'll come find you later."
Actually, all of this was caused by Huang Xiaochuan. He bought dozens of sheets of the 80 Year of the Monkey stamps in one day, which surprised the female stamp dealer Nan Hui.
So Nan Hui immediately allocated funds to join the fray, aggressively buying up 80 monkeys. This caused the price of 80 monkeys in the market to rise rapidly in a short period. During this time, Nan Hui noticed something was amiss; the price increase was too fast. So she would occasionally stop and observe for a few days, letting the price of 80 monkeys cool down before continuing to buy some to see the market reaction.
This is the origin of the "sometimes wanting, sometimes not" problem that the postal smuggler surnamed Sun mentioned.
Meanwhile, a group of strangers from other places had quietly entered the market with a large amount of social capital. Just today, many strangers with accents from other places suddenly appeared in the market and began to buy up 80 monkeys. One of them came to Nan Hui's shop.
Upon entering, he said he wanted to discuss a big business deal with the boss. Seeing the other party's attire and demeanor, Ah Cheng felt he couldn't make the decision himself, so he asked his older sister, Nan Hui, to come out.
Nan Hui's appearance caught the eye of the strangers, who couldn't help but take a few more glances at this beautiful proprietress.
"What's your surname, boss?" Nan Hui subtly probed the other party's background.
"No need for formalities, I am Mu Zili."
"Boss Li, what would you like to order?"
"I need a lot of varieties, it mainly depends on whether your prices are suitable, boss."
"Boss Li, you're joking. Whether the price is right or not needs to be discussed. How can you know it's not right if you don't discuss it?" Seeing that the other party was watertight, Nan Hui's reply was also steady and composed.
"Boss lady, do you have any '80s kids?"
Nan Hui's heart skipped a beat, but she asked calmly, "The price of 80 monkeys has gone up now; they're not cheap!"
"There has to be a price for anything, right? The key question is, do you even have it here?"
Because Ah Cheng listened to Nan Hui's advice, he took most of the 80 Monkey stamps off the shelves. Only a few were left scattered in the counter to make a show of things. The full sheet of 80 Monkey stamps that had been in the window earlier had long been put into a safe.
So when the stranger came in, he didn't see how many 80 monkeys there were, but according to reliable sources, the pretty proprietress did collect quite a few 80 monkeys in the market recently, mostly in full sheets.
He came specifically for this group of 80s kids.
"Boss Li, you've come at a really bad time. All the 80 monkeys were bought up recently, and only these are left in the counter. The market price is too high these days, and I don't dare to restock." Nan Hui made up a casual excuse to brush it off.
"Boss lady, I heard from others that you bought a lot recently. The price is already very high, and you've made a good profit. You can sell the goods now. It's better to have a lot of cash on hand than to have a pile of inventory stuck at home, right?"
"Oh! Mr. Li is joking. Why would I refuse business that's offered to me? They've all been bought up by big bosses from out of town. I'm not kidding you." Nan Hui wouldn't budge.
Seeing that Nan Hui refused to budge and there was no way to force her to buy, the other party took out a business card and said, "Boss lady, this is my contact number. If you want to ship any more goods in the future, you can call me directly at this number. I'll take as many as you want, and I guarantee you'll be satisfied with the price."
After saying goodbye to Nan Hui, he left. Watching him go, Nan Hui quickly considered her options and decided to buy some more 80-level monkeys. She then instructed Acheng, "Acheng, go to the market and ask who has any 80-level monkeys left. Let's buy some."
"Sister, the market price is already 42 today, how much should we buy it for?"
Nan Hui pondered for a moment and said, "45, the full edition of Fang Lian is separate."
"Hey!" Ah Cheng went immediately.
In fact, it wasn't just people coming to Nan Hui's shop to buy 80 monkeys; almost all the big players in the market encountered this situation. Some treated it as normal business and sold off their inventory of 80 monkeys, while others were more cautious and only sold a small portion, keeping the rest in hand to wait and see.
Ge Changli personally witnessed people buying up large quantities of 80-yuan stamps, adding two or three yuan to the market price. This phenomenon was not limited to one company but was widespread. Soon, some stamp dealers realized what was happening and either raised the price on the spot or simply stopped selling.
Soon after, news of the 80 Monkey stamps' price surging spread throughout the market. An even stranger scene unfolded: a small number of stamp dealers stopped doing business altogether, even though it was Sunday! They simply packed up their stalls and left.
If you ask them where they've been, these shrewd stamp dealers have already headed straight for train and bus stations. They're going to travel to other regions to buy 80 Year of the Monkey stamps, profiting from the information gap. It's a gamble to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle; it's just a bit of hard work running back and forth.
Ah Cheng also brought back the news: no stamp dealers were willing to sell their goods anymore. These stamp dealers who often cooperated with them either had their 80-yuan monkey stamps bought up at high prices, or they were holding onto them and waiting for a better price to sell them later.
Nan Hui vaguely felt that she had made the right bet again, and it seemed that the market was indeed about to recover. Nan Hui quickly started to calculate in her mind.
Ge Changli returned to the stall of the postman surnamed Sun, who was busy packing up.
"Old Sun? What's wrong? You're not doing business anymore? I was thinking of buying a few '80 Monkey' cards from you. Didn't you just buy a batch?"
"Mr. Ge, I'm so sorry! I have something urgent to attend to. The 80 monkey stamps have already been sold. I'll save a few for you next time you come, okay?" After saying that, he hurriedly left with several large bags of stamp albums.
This guy was actually planning to take a bus to another city to buy 80-yuan monkeys. The batch of 80-yuan monkeys he had just bought from a stamp dealer in another city was in his bag. He was not going to sell them now no matter what. Time was precious, and he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the stamp dealers in other cities hadn't reacted yet, so he quickly went to another city to buy some back at today's market price.
Based on his years of experience, the stamp dealer surnamed Sun predicted that the price of the 80 monkey stamps would soon skyrocket in the market. Don't ask why? Monkeys are known for their somersaults. Right now they're somersaulting upwards, but they might be somersaulting downwards in the future. However, it's definitely a sure way to make a profit by following the monkeys when they're somersaulting upwards.