I'm back in 1990

Chapter 89: Stamp Speculation is Still a Hard Job

On the afternoon of October 10th, there was only one class that afternoon. After class, Huang Xiaochuan threw his textbook to Chen Zhe and asked him to take it back to his dormitory.

He rode his bike straight to Lu Gong's place. Shanghai was great in every way, except it was just too big. And there weren't many transportation options available then; only bicycles, motorcycles, and cars.

It's too far to get from one place to another, and his current financial situation isn't good enough to buy a car, so he has to rely on his own two legs. Huang Xiaochuan has always kept his distance from motorcycles; riding one of those things is just like riding a piece of metal.

Hao Zhidu watched Huang Xiaochuan's departing figure disappear into the distance and asked the others, "Has any of you seen Xiaochuan's girlfriend?"

They all mistakenly thought Huang Xiaochuan had gone to see his girlfriend, but they were all wrong.

Everyone shook their heads. Wu Duo cursed, "That rich bastard's mouth is tight. He won't say a word. I only know she's his childhood sweetheart, but I don't even know what she looks like!"

"You guys are all incredibly stupid! There must be photos! He always has that bag with him, so the photos must be in his bag. One day when he's not looking, a few of us can hold him down and have someone find the photos in his bag to see what's going on!" Ding Yi, that wicked guy, came up with a terrible idea.

"Old Ding, I must say, your idea works!" Upon hearing this, Wu Duo immediately decided to collude with Ding Yi.

Apart from Chen Zhe, the other four reached an agreement.

The Lu Gong stamp market is now bustling with activity every day, with a constant flow of buying and selling. The trading volume is many times higher than it was two months ago. The number of people trading in the market every day has reached more than 30,000, and it is still increasing.

Upon entering the market, Huang Xiaochuan immediately sensed its bustling and incredibly vibrant prosperity.

The market is now well-stocked with stamps and philatelic products. Even previously overlooked junk stamps and souvenir sheets are now being sold off to clear out inventory as the market improves.

The reason is that these stamps have been stuck in my hands for several years, and I'm taking advantage of this market trend to get rid of them as soon as possible and get back as much as I can.

Huang Xiaochuan's target was these worthless miniature sheets, the most outstanding example of which was the "Panda" miniature sheet.

This miniature sheet is exquisitely designed, and the original artwork is by the famous painter Wu Zuoren.

This miniature sheet is actually quite good, and should be very popular among stamp collectors.

Several miniature sheets were issued in the first half of 1985, and the issuance volume was relatively normal.

However, when it came to this panda miniature sheet, its print run reached a staggering 126683 million. Although the white crane miniature sheet, which was issued after it, also had a print run of 500 million, it paled in comparison to the panda miniature sheet.

Keep in mind this was in 1985! Never before had a miniature sheet had a print run exceeding ten million.

After the issuance volume for the following year was disclosed, the price of this panda stamp plummeted, falling below its face value and becoming a worthless junk stamp in the stamp market.

The lowest transaction price has dropped to 2 yuan per coin, and if the volume is large, it can be reduced by 1 yuan.

Before entering the market, Huang Xiaochuan bought a market newsletter and checked today's market price. The panda miniature sheet was priced at 22 yuan today.

It seems that the influx of large amounts of capital has affected these low-quality stocks. Although the increase is not large, it is still a 10% increase.

However, no one is optimistic about this panda, which has already been labeled as a junk vote.

Since its value fell below face value in 1986, this panda has been dormant for four years. Many stamp dealers and collectors have suffered losses because of it, so they all avoid it like the plague.

Excellent! This is exactly what Huang Xiaochuan wants. If you don't want it, I will!

Of course, there are also JP postcards. These were issued in small quantities and were initially a niche stamp item. In an era when stamps were highly sought after, they were basically ignored.

So apart from some early Japanese adult films that saw a slight price increase, the Japanese adult films released in the last two years are basically dirt cheap.

This thing has one drawback.

That is, they are large and heavy. Ten or a hundred sheets are fine, but if Huang Xiaochuan wants to buy them, it would be tens of thousands!

The standard weight of a single JP film is six grams. One thousand films weigh six kilograms, and ten thousand films weigh sixty kilograms.

Huang Xiaochuan never imagined that stamp speculation would be such a physically demanding job.

Since we're already here, let's get started!

Huang Xiaochuan arrived at a stamp dealer's stall that seemed to have plenty of stock and casually flipped through the stamp albums displayed on the ground.

He then pointed to a pile of miniature sheets next to the stamp seller and asked, "Boss, do you have any panda stamps?"

The stamp seller seemed unsure of the panda stamps, casually replying, "Yes, but not individually, only in boxes! 220 per box (one box contains one hundred stamps)."

Huang Xiaochuan glanced at the box and roughly estimated that there were about thirty boxes here.

"I'll buy them all, 200 a box or not?"

Upon hearing this, the mail seller immediately perked up: "215, I'm already losing money, friend, can you help me reduce my losses?"

"Just 200, I'm going to shoot you dead, I'm not going to talk about quality." Huang Xiaochuan wouldn't budge an inch.

Then Huang Xiaochuan added, "Is it okay? If not, I'm leaving! I see other places have it too, and I'm in a hurry."

Since there were fools willing to buy up these worthless stamps, the stamp dealers were naturally willing to make their move. They secretly mocked Huang Xiaochuan for being an idiot, but their faces were full of smiles.

"Alright, alright, I'll sell it to you. You're too shrewd; I can't argue with you. I guess I'll just accept my bad luck and take the loss!"

However, Huang Xiaochuan wanted to continue ripping off this mail seller: "How much are these Japanese pornographic films?"

Upon hearing that this guy was interested in Japanese porn, the mail seller was overjoyed!

He quickly tried to sell them: "They were a bit more expensive a few years ago, but last year's and this year's are only one yuan each. How many do you want?"

The face value of the JP was 4 cents, and the issue price was only a few cents, so the price was quite fair.

How many do you have here?

"There are 11 types released this year and last year. I have six boxes of JP18 here. Do you want them? Each box contains 1,000 sheets."

Huang Xiaochuan felt extremely dizzy upon hearing this. Six boxes weighed thirty-six kilograms. How was he supposed to carry them all?

"Never mind, there's no way to take it! We'll talk about it next time!"

These boxes of JP18 were brought to me yesterday by a mail dealer from out of town. The purchase price for each JP18 is only six cents. If I sell these JP18 today, I will have made 2400 yuan in just one day.

The mail seller thought he had to sell this batch of JP18s even if he made less money, since it was a rare opportunity to get such a good deal.

"Friend, how about I give you a 10-cent discount? That way I can recoup some of my costs."

Huang Xiaochuan thought about it and realized that by May or June next year, the price of this stuff would be as high as 30 or 50 yuan per sheet. Sigh! It's tough work, but so be it! What kind of money doesn't come with hard work?

"Alright then! I'll take it."

Thirty-six boxes of Panda 7200 and six cases of JP18-5400, totaling 12600.

In a short while, one-tenth of the 130,000 was gone.

Alright! That's enough for today! If we buy any more, we won't be able to carry them.

There's a dedicated service point at the entrance that charges a fee for packaging. Just pay the service fee, and someone will take care of everything for you.

In this way, the six boxes of JP18 were firmly tied to the back seat of the bicycle, and the thirty-six boxes of Panda miniature sheets were casually put into a bag and hung on the handlebars of the bicycle. That's how they rode all the way to Wenyuan.

After carrying the stamps and JP cards to his rented apartment, Huang Xiaochuan regretted renting the fifth floor, imagining the scene.

With a bag of panda miniature sheets hanging around his neck and three boxes of JP films in each hand, it was as if he had carried a 36-pound bag of rice in each hand up five flights of stairs.

Fortunately, Huang Xiaochuan is young and healthy, and he didn't pant too much on the way up, but it was really tiring!