Zhuang Rui was taken aback when he saw the low price of the rough stone. Such a large piece, even if it was from a new mine, should be worth around 70,000 to 80,000 yuan. It was only priced at 20,000 yuan. He guessed that the organizers of the conference didn't think much of it during the evaluation.
Unlike the Myanmar jade auction and the Pingzhou jade auction, the raw jade stalls here are unattended. Only soldiers are watching the merchants who come to buy raw stones. As long as you don't take a hammer to cause damage, no one will care how much you observe.
"Number 129..."
The fact that no one else is optimistic is the perfect opportunity to snag a bargain. Zhuang Rui was overjoyed and quickly wrote down the serial number of the rough stone, then made a small, inconspicuous mark next to it. He was already thinking about what price it would fetch later.
"Offering around 500,000 should be about right, considering the asking price was only 20,000..."
As Zhuang Rui walked down the row of stalls, he mentally set a price for the piece of material, but he always felt that something was amiss, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
"Damn, 20,000 is in euros, holy crap, I almost forgot about that..."
When Zhuang Rui's eyes swept over the question mark on a price tag, he suddenly remembered that the settlement at the Myanmar jade auction was not in RMB. This 20,000 yuan was in Euros, which was equivalent to 200,000 RMB.
After thinking it through, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but curse inwardly at the outrageous price. The material had no quality whatsoever, yet it was priced at 200,000 RMB.
However, Zhuang Rui was also somewhat relieved. Fortunately, this was an open bidding area, where all the materials were for auction. If it had been a sealed bid, he would have lost a lot of money if he had entered a figure of two million. The jade in this piece was only worth about twenty million RMB.
As time went on, the number of people in the open bidding area gradually increased. There were quite a few people who shared the same idea as Yang Hao and others. Taking advantage of the rising price of jade, speculative merchants from China who wanted to make a quick buck gathered in Myanmar. Their funds were insufficient to compete for sealed bids, so open bidding became the best option.
Tens of thousands of jadeite rough stones, even just walking around them once would take a lot of time. After marking the stone, Zhuang Rui started searching again. However, the rough stones in the marked area were all stones that others didn't think much of. When he saw the rough stone numbered 381, Zhuang Rui didn't find anything.
It's not that none of these 300+ rough stones contained jade; on the contrary, more than 200 of them had a hint of green. However, the color and clarity were so poor that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe them as "dog shit." The pendants and bracelets carved from those stones could only be sold at street stalls for 30 to 50 yuan each.
Zhuang Rui only has Luo Jiang as a jade carving master, and Luo Jiang's annual salary is not low. He would never give Luo Jiang these poor jade materials to carve, as that would be a pure waste of time, money and energy.
"Xiao Rui, you're here too?"
As Zhuang Rui was seemingly aimlessly wandering around the stalls, his mother-in-law's voice suddenly rang out. Looking up, Zhuang Rui realized that he had just turned a corner and walked back to a place not far from the entrance of the bidding area.
"Aunt Fang, didn't you go to check on the sealed bids?"
Next to the rough stone where Fang Yi was standing, there were seven or eight other people. To Zhuang Rui's surprise, Xu Zhendong, the head of Xu's Jewelry, was also examining the stone. It was truly a case of enemies meeting again.
What Zhuang Rui didn't know was that after Xu Zhendong spent 30 million to buy a worthless stone from him last time, which was so cheap it wasn't even hard enough to use as a seat cushion, Xu's Jewelry was already in dire need of working capital. This time, they only managed to raise 50 million RMB to purchase raw materials after all the sales revenue of their various jewelry branches across the country were transferred to the head office.
To be honest, 50 million RMB is an astronomical figure in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the context of the Myanmar jade auction, it wouldn't even make a ripple.
It's worth noting that at the Myanmar jade auction last March, the final transaction amount reached as much as 3 billion RMB. Compared to that, 50 million RMB is really insignificant.
Chapter 446 Clearly marked (3)
"Your Uncle Qin is looking at the sealed bids. Master Li and I are here to look at the open bids. Our company is almost out of stock of mid- to low-grade jade, except for a few high-grade pieces. We're counting on this public auction to buy some raw materials..."
Fang Yi already considered Zhuang Rui her son-in-law. After stepping out of the crowd, she frowned and told Zhuang Rui about the current situation of Qin's Jewelry.
Qin's Jewelry appears to have brought in a lot of funds this time, but this Myanmar auction is destined to drive everyone crazy, because last year's transaction volume of 3 billion RMB occurred before the Myanmar government issued that announcement.
"Aunt Fang, don't worry. The jade market is short of raw materials, and it's not just us. Maybe we can find some good pieces this time..."
Seeing his mother-in-law's worried expression, Zhuang Rui offered some words of comfort, wondering if he could give them some advice. After all, the dowry given by Old Master Qin was quite substantial; Qin Ruilin in Beijing, including the shops and goods, was worth hundreds of millions.
"Oh right, Xiao Rui, I almost forgot you know about jade too. What do you think of this piece?"
Fang Yi suddenly remembered that the top bidder at last year's Pingzhou Jadeite Auction was her future son-in-law. His expertise should be no worse than the jadeite gambling consultant hired by the company.
"Okay, let me take a look first..."
Zhuang Rui didn't stand on ceremony and walked past Fang Yi. The people who were originally gathered around the rough stone also made way for him. Zhuang Rui's status in the jade gambling circle was earned through real cutting and cutting of stones, which was more convincing than anything else.
"Hmm? It's a piece of red jadeite?"
Walking over to the rough stone, Zhuang Rui frowned. This rough stone was quite large, weighing about five or six hundred kilograms, making it a large jadeite rough stone. Moreover, it had an outer shell, which meant it was an old mine material. There was a rubbing on one side of the rough stone, which did not produce jadeite, but it did produce red mist, so the chances of finding red jadeite inside were quite high.
Zhuang Rui was puzzled. Logically speaking, this piece of jade was far superior to the piece of red jadeite he had cut himself. Why was it displayed in the open auction area? And judging from the expressions of the people around him, they all seemed interested in this behemoth of red jadeite.
Zhuang Rui was unaware that this whole affair was his fault. Ever since he took those icy red jadeite pieces to sell at Qin Ruilin in Beijing, he had boosted the multi-colored jadeite market. Not only red jadeite jewelry, but also yellow, blue, and purple jadeite were all popular with consumers. Even colorless jadeite jewelry, which had always been inexpensive, saw its price quadruple.
"Boss Zhuang, what do you think of this piece of material?"
A familiar voice rang in Zhuang Rui's ears.
"Oh, Mr. Han, you're a senior figure here. I should be asking you this. This material looks pretty good, so why is it displayed in the open bidding section?"
Zhuang Rui was genuinely puzzled, so he simply asked. He didn't have the air of a "master" like in the movies; in his heart, Zhuang Rui still felt like a complete novice.
"Hehe. Mr. Zhuang, why don't you take a look around again..."
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Rui walked behind the rough stone and narrowed his eyes. He finally understood why the stone was placed there.
On the back of this enormous rough stone, a crack more than 100 centimeters long has appeared from top to bottom, almost running from head to toe through the entire stone.
The most undesirable feature of jadeite is cracks. Too many cracks will greatly affect the value of jadeite. Raw stones without cracks are relatively rare. However, there are several types of cracks. It is not that the presence of cracks will necessarily render the jadeite inside useless.
The most common type is the "skin-clamping crack," which is a deep crack visible on the jadeite rough stone, with obvious rust or other discolored substances at the opening. Such cracks can be opened by gently tapping them a few times with a hammer, and generally do not affect the internal structure of the jadeite.
Cracks that grow in an orderly fashion along the direction of the green or other colored edges are called "following cracks." There are also cracks that are only visible as a water line or without any trace on the rough stone, but become very obvious after being cut open. These are called "hidden cracks" and are more harmful to jadeite. The so-called "gambling on cracks" usually refers to these two types.
The types of cracked jadeite mentioned above are all worth gambling on. However, if you encounter a flawed crack, everyone will avoid it. A flawed crack is an obvious crack that can be seen on the surface of the raw stone, and it extends over a large area. Some flawed cracks may also show various colored impurities that have seeped into them.
This piece of red jade is like that. The meandering, stream-like fissure extends to a point where you can see with the naked eye the brownish-red, black, and white crystals mixed together. Even when you shine a strong flashlight on it, you can't see what's inside.
To seasoned jade gamblers, a rough stone exhibiting this characteristic is a gamble where one bet results in a nine-out-of-ten chance of winning. In other words, there's only a 10% chance of winning, but a 90% chance of losing everything.
As the saying goes, seeing is believing, and Zhuang Rui has experienced a lot in the world of jade gambling. He has even cut open rough stones that were once considered waste and found to be of glassy quality. Naturally, he would use his spiritual energy to examine them before he would feel at ease.
Following the crack, Zhuang Rui's spiritual energy continued to extend inward, penetrating almost thirty centimeters. The crack still existed, and inside the stone, there were pink crystal particles, but no trace of red jade was visible.
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to withdraw his spiritual energy, his eyes lit up. He rubbed the stone about ten centimeters away on the other side, and finally, a red light appeared. "Glassy type!"
Zhuang Rui was thrilled. This was the second time he had looked at the timber from the Dakan timber yard, and he hadn't expected to see glass-type jadeite again.
As Zhuang Rui continued to examine it, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. The red jadeite, which should have weighed more than 30 kilograms, was a little lighter in color than chicken-blood red. It was a petal red color. Although the quality was good, its value was many times lower than that of the blood jade bracelet.
Furthermore, this piece of jade doesn't have any icy or other derivative types; it's just a single, isolated piece. Zhuang Rui estimated in his mind that although this jade can't be made into a blood jade bracelet, its glassy texture alone would be enough to sell a bracelet for one or two million.
It weighs over 30 kilograms and is all bundled together. It should be no problem to extract 70 or 80 bracelets from it. Adding the other hollowed-out fragments, its value will definitely exceed 150 million.
With this rough jadeite, plus the icy jadeite he just saw, if he can acquire both, Qin Ruilin will have no shortage of mid-to-high-end jadeite jewelry for the next few years. At that time, he only needs to gamble on a few pieces of low-grade jadeite, such as oily green jadeite, and have them processed by Qin's Jewelry to completely solve the problem of supply.
"Sigh, nine out of ten pieces will break. This material isn't just risky, it's practically worthless..."
Although he was overjoyed, when Zhuang Rui returned to the front of the group, his face was grave, and he immediately sentenced the rough stone to death.
"Aunt Fang, I just saw a nice piece of material, let's go take a look..."
As Zhuang Rui turned around, he had already firmly memorized a set of numbers: number 5220. He had made up his mind to use all the money he had brought to acquire this rough stone. However, the number was a bit late in the auction, so he estimated that it wouldn't be up for auction in the next day or two. It seemed that he would have to come and check every day during the open auctions, otherwise, if someone else snatched it away, he would suffer a huge loss.
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, the crowd dispersed in a flurry. Of course, some remained undeterred. Xu Zhendong, for example, took a small high-powered flashlight and pondered the back of the wool fabric for a long time before finally shaking his head and leaving with a disappointed look.
"Zhuang Rui, is there really no risk in gambling on that piece of jade?"
Fang Yi understands jade, but not gambling on stones. She doesn't understand why Zhuang Rui is so sure.
"Mrs. Qin, that's a bad piece. Even if there's jade inside, it's all damaged. It's not worth much..."
Before Zhuang Rui could reply, Master Li beside her offered his explanation. Fang Yi nodded, seemingly understanding, and glanced at her watch. It was already past noon, so she quickly contacted Qin Haoran and arranged to have lunch together.
With Master Li nearby, Zhuang Rui didn't offer any explanation. In the afternoon, everyone separated again. There were too many rough stones in the venue, and it would be better to divide them into different areas, tally up the valuable rough stones, and then analyze them slowly when they got back. After all, the time for observing rough stones each day was only from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon. How many stones could they possibly see in just eight hours?
In the afternoon, the venue was even more crowded. According to Qin Haoran, this jade auction was estimated to have a record-breaking 3,000 attendees, whereas in previous jade auctions, a little over 1,000 attendees was considered quite remarkable.
Zhuang Rui had already seen the jadeite pieces numbered after 5000 in the open bidding area. Because that giant red jadeite piece was relatively close to the entrance of the open bidding area, it attracted a lot of people, but after examining it, they all left with a sigh.
The area with the most people in the open bidding section was the area with the first 2000 rough stones, which were the 2000 rough stones to be auctioned today. The auction was scheduled to begin in the afternoon. As time went by, everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the auction to start so they could get the stones they wanted.
The auction was not held at the jade gambling site, but in an auditorium in the jade trading center. This sizable auditorium was divided into ten auction rooms, each with a huge display screen on the wall, which was constantly scrolling through the numbers of the jade pieces to be auctioned.
Two hundred rough stones were divided into two auction areas. The icy jade stone that Zhuang Rui had his eye on was number 129, so it was naturally placed in auction area number one. After showing his admission pass and registering, Zhuang Rui received a number plate and sat down in the chair in the middle of the row.
Chapter 447 Clearly marked (4)
"Excuse me, sir. Please take your seat according to your number..."
Zhuang Rui had just sat down when he was greeted by a staff member who spoke fluent Mandarin.
"You can't just sit anywhere?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback. Back in Pingzhou, if you arrived early, you could get a seat, but if you arrived late, you could only stand. So Zhuang Rui had been waiting here all along, but he didn't expect that he would have to find a seat.
"Of course you can't just sit anywhere. Each auction room here can only accommodate 100 people to participate in the auction. If you arrive late and don't get a numbered ticket, you can't participate..."
The staff checked Zhuang Rui's number plate and then led him to the front of the first row of chairs. Zhuang Rui's number plate was 8, making him one of the first people to enter the auction hall.
"Damn, is that even a saying?"
Zhuang Rui was feeling frustrated. It seemed that when he arrived at the auction in the next day or two, he would have to carefully plan the auction venue for that giant red jadeite before applying for a bidding number. Otherwise, if he didn't even qualify for the auction, he would lose a fortune.
Actually, the Myanmar Jade Trading Center is considered one of the more luxurious buildings in Myanmar. The huge venue has a large auditorium that can accommodate thousands of people, and the air conditioning is very strong, so there is no feeling of heat outside.
"Hmm, what is this?"
After Zhuang Rui sat down in the front row, he noticed an object resembling a card reader placed on the armrest of the chair. It had an electronic screen with buttons numbered 1-10 on the panel. The armrest of the chair next to him was also specially made, with a buckle to secure the object.
"Hehe, Brother Zhuang, you don't even know this, yet you've come to the auction house?"
Suddenly, Zhuang Rui heard Yang Hao's laughter behind him. He turned around and saw Yang Hao and his uncle sitting in the row behind him, playing with the thing that was stuck on the handle. Zhuang Rui looked around and realized that there was one of these things at every seat.
"Brother Yang, what's this thing for? What's its purpose?"
Zhuang Rui quickly asked, worried that if the auction started and he was still confused, someone might snatch the icy jadeite. That would be incredibly unfair.
Yang Hao chuckled, waved a small booklet in his hand, and said, "Brother Zhuang, when you got your number plate earlier, you were given a booklet like this, right? You'll understand once you take a look..."
"Hmm? It really is..."
Zhuang Rui had assumed the booklet was some kind of promotional material and casually put it in his bag. Now, after finding it again, he saw the words "Auction Instructions" in several languages on the cover.
"That's really quite advanced..."
After reading the booklet, which consisted of only two pages, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but sigh. It turned out that the number plate he was given was just for matching numbers, not like in the movies or at auctions he had participated in before, where you could raise your hand and bid.
The thing Zhuang Rui didn't understand was called the bidding device. The entire process of the open bidding auction depended on this bidding device. It was an electronic program that Myanmar had specifically developed and designed for open bidding auctions abroad.
When the open bidding begins, the rough stones will be numbered from 1 to 2000 on the large electronic screen in the auction hall. Yes, from 1 to 2000, not the 200 rough stones that Zhuang Rui thought each auction hall could only auction. As long as you are in any of the 10 auction halls, you can bid on all the rough stones that are up for auction.
In other words, Zhuang Rui doesn't necessarily have to sit in Auction Hall No. 1. Even if he arrives late, as long as there are fewer than 1,000 applicants, he still has a chance to participate in the auction. In previous years, only a little over 1,000 people have come to Myanmar to participate in the public auction, so there is basically no problem of not having enough seats.
Once the auction begins, the starting price for each piece of raw jade will appear below each number displayed on the large screen.