Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Competitors
The entrance of the container was filled with porcelain.
Porcelain stored in boxes.
At first glance, the porcelain at the entrance was mostly damaged. Either missing a corner or having a crack.
However, there were about a dozen boxes of intact porcelain inside.
Although Sean was Chinese, his understanding of porcelain was limited to that of an ordinary person.
The porcelain did not appear to be modern, but rather resembled ancient pottery.
But the quantity was quite large.
If it was indeed ancient pottery, even if it was damaged, the large amount would still be a considerable fortune.
Why would the owner of this container abandon these pieces of porcelain?
It just didn't make sense!
Regardless, Sean wanted to give it a try and win the auction!
When the container was opened, the attention of several people crowded at the entrance immediately shifted to Sean and the Asian woman who had followed him and won the first container.
Sean understood.
After all, porcelain was synonymous with China.
These people had already considered themselves and the other woman as formidable competitors.
Over the years, the massive repurchase of overseas antiques by the Chinese has led many people abroad to realize that objects from ancient China are extremely valuable.
Ming and Qing Dynasty Porcelain, which could originally be bought in flea markets for ten or dozens of dollars, is now being sold for several thousand dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars!
Moreover, some people would immediately increase their price tenfold or even dozens of times when they saw Chinese people bidding.
They believed that the Chinese people were gullible big spenders.
Thus, when the auctioneer set a reserve price of 300 dollars, Sean called 350 dollars, and the seven or eight participants immediately quoted, pushing up the price to 1,100 dollars!
Sean was surprised.
After carefully examining the porcelain, the Asian woman continued to bid:
"1,500 dollars!"
Sean pondered and then placed a bid:
"2,000 dollars!"
He raised his bid by 500 dollars in an attempt to scare off some competitors.
Indeed, this move seemed to be effective.
Some clueless bidders immediately stopped offering.
"2,100 dollars." However, two other bidders were unwilling to give up.
"2,300 dollars!"
"3,000 dollars!" This time, the one who raised the price was the Asian woman.
Sean was a bit surprised. The Asian woman seemed determined to get these pieces of porcelain.
He looked at the porcelain again and noticed it seemed to be coated with something, not as shiny and clear as ordinary porcelain.
"3,500 dollars!" A woman's voice suddenly sounded.
Sean turned his head, and it was Joanna!
She walked up to Sean and whispered:
"Do you like it? If you do, I'll bid for you."
Sean was astonished!
What was going on?
Bidding for him?
Was he going to be kept by her?
No way!
He gently patted Joanna's shoulder and said:
"No need, I have money here. And...there's something suspicious about these things."
The Asian woman raised the bid again:
"4,000 dollars!"
Joanna didn't bid again after listening to Sean's words.
However, the auction's atmosphere had already been heated by Sean and the woman. He told Joanna not to raise her bid, but he still wanted to go through with the auction, and others kept bidding as well.
"4,500 dollars!"
Initially, the bids were increased by 50 dollars each time, but when Sean and the Asian woman began bidding, they increased the offers by 500 dollars.
Sean Knight believed that the woman must have recognized that these porcelains were antiques.
However, this was not ordinary ancient porcelain; it was probably sea salvaged porcelain.
And a fair amount of the porcelain had some damage.
As Sean glanced over, he found that there should be about sixty porcelain pieces, with around forty of them in good condition.
The key point was that these porcelains were not produced in an official kiln. Sky Eye could see the inscriptions underneath, and there were no official markings.
So, even if they were Ming and Qing Dynasty porcelain, the odds were that they were not particularly valuable.
So, when the price went up to 7,000 dollars, only Sean and the woman were bidding.
The woman walked over and whispered to Sean:
"Why should we compete against each other?"
She spoke in Mandarin with a hint of a Central China dialect.
Sean thought for a moment and then gave up.
Although he wasn't sure about the value of sea salvaged porcelain, he was certain it wouldn't be too valuable.
And since they were fellow compatriots, why not forge good connections instead!
Linda Wang won the porcelain auction.
"Thank you, my name is Helen Brown, and here's my business card." Handing Sean her card, she then glanced at Joanna Davis and said:
"You have a beautiful girlfriend."
Then she turned and left.
Sean and Joanna began cleaning out their container together.
Joanna asked the question that had been on her mind:
"Why didn't you continue bidding for the last container? If you didn't have enough money, I had some."
Sean shook his head and said:
"Bidding higher wouldn't have made much profit."
He explained his guess about the sea salvaged porcelain to Joanna, and then said:
"Some of these porcelains are damaged. The intact ones are more valuable, but there's a limit. I estimated the total value to be around 10,000 dollars, so it made no sense to continue bidding."
Joanna nodded somewhat understandingly but then shifted her focus to her won container.
She was very satisfied with Sean's patient explanation.
In a relationship, who wouldn't want their partner's attention focused on them?
Joanna removed the covering and, seeing the motorcycle, exclaimed:
"It's a Harley!"
Sean didn't know much about motorcycles.
Although he had heard of Harley, he didn't know much about its value.
It was Joanna who had a wealth of knowledge in this area. She educated Sean:
"This is a Harley motorcycle from the 1980s. It's a collectible now. Let me see..."
Joanna carefully examined the motorcycle's model, parts, and even tried to start it.
"Mmm, it's in excellent condition. It should sell for around 10,000 dollars! I've made a profit!"
Joanna couldn't help but turn and kiss Sean, saying:
"Dear, bidding on containers is so exciting! I'm really lucky!"
Looking at the other items, they were all parts and tools worth just a few hundred dollars.
"I have a friend whose dad collects these. I can give her a call." Sean didn't expect that Joanna even had a channel to sell the items.
After making the phone call, Joanna sent a few photos over.
"Next, let's see your container. I hope there's a good harvest!"
Sean confidently said:
"There will be. Your luck will bring me good fortune!"
Entering his container and seeing the used goods and even garbage lying around, Joanna was immediately disappointed.
Upon seeing the safe, her eyes lit up, but then she saw that it was open and became disappointed again.
"It seems that my luck hasn't made any difference."
However, Sean laughed and said:
"Who says? Your luck is great and has brought me good fortune too, really!"
"Really?" Joanna was somewhat skeptical. There was nothing valuable in here, just worthless used goods and garbage.
Where are the good items?