If Li Du had made such a request at the beginning of the auction, he would have been mocked by many people.
But now that he had established his reputation, the treasure hunters would not laugh at him anymore. Moreover, his request was also what everyone wanted.
After the auctioneer rejected it, more people made requests:
"Old buddy, let us go in and take a look. We're just at the door, how can we take the risk?"
"I have money, but I don't dare to spend it unless I go in and see what's going on."
"Is the furniture inside really mahogany? If it is, why are you afraid of us looking? "
The auctioneer stood at the door like a stone Buddha, ignoring the requests and threats of the treasure hunters.
Li Du went up to him and whispered, "Buddy, if you want to make money, let everyone in and take a look. Otherwise, no one will dare to bid a high price. And you know what's in the next storage unit. Unless you let everyone think that the furniture is real, the price will get lower the further you go! "
The auctioneer remained calm and said, "Sorry, the rules are the rules."
Li Du patted him on the shoulder and said, "The rules are dead, but people are alive. Believe me, the furniture inside looks real. If you let everyone see it, the price will only get higher! "
The auctioneer was a little tempted. No one would say no to money.
Li Du was right about one thing: he knew what was in the next storage unit. As the auctioneer, he had seen it in advance and cooperated with the storage company to set the initial price.
The next few storage units were full of mahogany furniture. The more they went, the less enthusiastic people would be, because they would guess that the furniture inside was fake.
If the furniture in these storage units were all real, seven storage units would be worth at least a million dollars. No mahogany house would forget so many valuable storage units.
That was what the storage company and the auctioneer thought, so the starting price was set at a few thousand dollars.
However, the price of the first storage unit had moved the auctioneer. According to the industry rules, his income was closely related to the final price of the storage units.
The first storage unit had sold for more than 60,000 dollars, and he had earned 6,000 dollars in one go. If the rest of the storage units sold at this price, he would be rich.
He hoped that the next storage units would sell at the same high price, but he did not dare let people look at the furniture closely. If they judged that the furniture was fake, he would not be able to make any money.
Li Du could tell that the auctioneer was wavering. He continued to add fuel to the fire and said in a low voice, "Let's go in and take a look. Regardless of whether this unit is real or fake, I'll make a minimum bid of 50,000 dollars. How about that?"
The auctioneer was finally moved. He stared at Li Du and said, "Minimum guarantee of 50,000 dollars?"
Li Du looked at the crowd and said, "Everyone can be my witness. No matter what we see after we go in, I will bid 50,000 dollars. That will be the bottom price of the auction, my bottom price!"
The treasure hunters all wanted to enter the storage unit, so when they heard what he said, they immediately cooperated and said, "We can testify!" "Boss Li is awesome!" "Let us go in and take a look!"
The auctioneer stepped aside and said, "You can enter the warehouse to look around, but you have to follow the rules of the trade. You are not allowed to touch anything, or I will expel you!"
"OK!" The treasure hunters cheered.
The first rule of a warehouse auction was that no one was allowed to enter the warehouse, let alone touch any of the items in the warehouse. Before the auction closed, the warehouse had to be kept intact.
However, there was a loophole in the rules, and that was' enter the warehouse '!
How did it count as entering the warehouse? Did I enter the warehouse after passing through the warehouse door? From the meaning of the words, that was indeed the case.
However, the rules of the auction did not specify this, so it was usually the auctioneer's responsibility to determine how to enter the warehouse.
This time, the auctioneer took two big steps back, which meant that the treasure hunters had two steps to enter. Although they could not wander around the warehouse, they could touch the outermost furniture.
Li Du was the first in line. He was practically sprawled on a small bed with clear lines and a glossy color. His eyes were focused and attentive.
Seeing the auctioneer step back, Frank, York, Rick, and the rest perked up.
They were not in a hurry to go up and take a look. Instead, they immediately called their friends who knew about mahogany or furniture, and prepared to ask for help through a video call.
Frank was on the phone. York looked at Li Du and laughed, "This guy seems to know a lot. Look at him, his eyeballs are almost glued to the wood!"
"What else do you expect him to do? How many capable collectors do you think these country bumpkins know? "Frank sneered before the call connected.
Li Du was also sneering. He was doing this on purpose to show some people.
At the last minute of the last auction, Rick had stopped bidding. This made Li Du understand that this guy might still have doubts about the authenticity of the mahogany furniture.
However, he must have wavered in his belief that the mahogany furniture was fake. Otherwise, he would not have bid 60,000 dollars.
Hence, he wanted to help Rick, to increase his confidence in the authenticity of the mahogany furniture. Of course, he could not do it directly. He had to help him indirectly.
What kind of indirect method? Li Du chose to find a way to get close to the mahogany furniture. This way, Rick would definitely call for help from his friends.
Li Du was confident that it would be impossible to tell that the furniture in the second warehouse was fake from the outside. This was because the furniture in this warehouse had all been fabricated using the craftsmanship method!
The furniture in the first warehouse had been fabricated using a combination of structural and pasted leather. For an experienced person, they would be able to see some clues from the outside.
This was because the structure of the furniture did not match, and the texture of the pasted leather furniture conflicted. After all, the pasted wood was pieced together.
The craftsmanship method was the closest to the real thing. It was very difficult to tell. The best way to tell was to cut the wood to see the internal texture.
However, mahogany furniture was very precious. Who would be willing to cut it open just to tell if it was real? Moreover, the treasure hunters here did not even have the right to touch the furniture, let alone cut it open!
As they got closer to the mahogany furniture, the treasure hunters began to show their skills. Some took pictures and sent them to their friends to help them identify the furniture. Some came closer to take a closer look. Some opened a video to let their friends see.
Li Du had guessed correctly. Although everyone was very secretive, he could still tell from the bits and pieces of conversation that no one could tell that the furniture was fake.
In particular, the outermost bed was made of ironknife wood to imitate rosewood. Ironknife wood looked very similar to rosewood, and with the addition of the dyeing process, the appearance was even more similar!
After the viewing, the auctioneer pointed at Li Du and shouted, "The starting price is 50,000 dollars. If you don't have that much money, please step back. If you want to get rich, please step forward. Because 50,000 dollars is the price offered by the youngest member of the Hundred Thousand Club —"
Without waiting for the auctioneer to finish speaking, Rick raised his hand and said, "60,000 dollars!"
His tone was very firm!
Seeing this, Li Du smiled. The fish had taken the bait.
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