Chapter 148: Stacks of Old Books
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Hans was wrong; this auction would not sell according to the genres, but that each section had been additionally divided, into hundreds of smaller sections!
With this, the information that Li Du had memorized yesterday lost its use. He hurriedly rushed around the unit, hoping to remember the new sections for the valuable books they had recorded yesterday.
Entering the second storage unit, he briskly walked around, and then returned to one of the stacks of books, puzzled.
Hans asked, "What’s up?"
Li Du said, "This stack of books; it wasn’t here yesterday."
The stack that caught his attention was relatively small. It was cordoned off by plastic poles, so it stood out from the other sections. There were also other similar stacks around. These stacks were all relatively fewer in books, and protected by poles.
Hans glanced and said, "These are all old books. Perhaps the bookstore was being cautious of people damaging them if they took them out early, so they only took them out now."
The new books didn’t seem to have much value. Li Du looked at the stacks of old books and decided to let the bug out to try to see if he could score a hit.
When the bug came out, it made a round in the air and then flew toward the stacks.
Li Du controlled it to prevent it from absorbing the time energy. He paid attention to which stack it went to, and recorded its traveling path.
He thought the bug would be interested in these old books, but besides the initial burst of energy when flying toward the first stack, the bug didn’t search around anymore.
Apparently, besides this particular stack, the other books didn’t have much time energy. These old books had an even lower value than new books.
An hour later, the auction was about to begin. Someone shouted in a loudspeaker, "Everyone, please leave the storage room. Everyone, please leave the storage room. Remember the details of the location of books that you want to auction for, and please go outside so that we can begin the bidding!"
Hans, his eyebrows creased, said, "This auction will be different from the past ones."
Previously, the people stood beside storage units the auction proceeded.
Li Du could understand. With the sheer number of books being auctioned, as well as the number of attendees, the bookstore clearly wanted to sell off as many books as possible.
According to the sequence, the first section to be auctioned was the self-improvement genre.
A total of 20,000 to 30,000 books were separated into 20 different sections, with each section having about a thousand books or so. The auctioneer spoke quickly, so the auction proceeded quickly as well.
"Self-improvement, section A—the starting bid is 1,000, 1,000, 1,000 dollars. Whoever wants it, quickly raise your hand up so I can see you….
"Alright fella, 1,000 for you then. Next up will be 1,100, anyone for 1,100…
"That guy went straight to 1,500, 1,500, 1,500—anyone want to go higher? Alright, no one is going for it, so these books belong to you, kiddo!"
One thousand five hundred dollars for a thousand new books; it was quite a good deal. Li Du mentally calculated for a moment, and then asked, "Say, how about we take all the books and set up a bookstore ourselves?"
"Are you trying to burn your money away?" Hans asked. "If these bookstores could still stay in business, why would they declare bankrupt?"
Li Du shrugged. Hans was right; he seemed to have put too little thought in before proposing the idea.
They didn’t have much interest in the self-improvement section, and thus didn’t participate in the bidding. They just stood at the side to watch how things played out.
The book auction was proceeding much faster than regular storage auctions. Two auctioneers took turns on stage. The words came out of their mouth faster than a machine gun’s rate of fire. If one hesitated for a moment, a section of books would be sold off.
The auctioneers here didn’t bother to give anyone time to think. They called thrice for the current offer, and if no one responded in three to four seconds, it would be a deal.
About ten minutes later, the auction for the novel genre was about to start. Li Du gave a pat on Hans’s shoulder and said, "Let’s go, soldier!"
"Novels, section A, consisting of 1,000 books. The starting bid is 2,000 dollars—2,000, 2,000, anyone willing to take it?" the auctioneer asked speedily.
Hans immediately raised his hand. "Two thousand five hundred!"
The auctioneer pointed at him and said, "This fella is going for 2,500, anyone willing to go for 2,600?"
"Me!" a white lady nodded and said.
Hans retracted his hands and left. The limit they had set for this stack was 2,500 dollars.
"Novels, section B, consisting of 1,100 books; the starting bid is 2,000, anyone…
"...Novels, section C, consisting of 1,080 books; the starting bid is 2,000, anyone…
"…Novels, section E, consisting of 980 books; the starting bid is 2,000, anyone willing to take it?"
Hans once again offered, and said with a nod, "Let’s make it 3,000 dollars!"
As the auction continued, the bidding began to heat up. Many people were on the scene, making a mess of noise. There were many times where multiple offers of the same price were called.
To save time, Hans had always called his final price on his first call.
His final price this time was relatively high;, the other treasure hunters that were interested shook their heads and gave up.
The auctioneer pointed at Hans and said, "3,000 dollars, and I’ve hit the hammer. These books belong to you, buddy!"
In the novels section, in accordance with Li Du’s request, Hans bought a total of four stacks, spending exactly 10,000 dollars for 3,800 books.
The other genres, such as finance, education, technology and lifestyle, they didn’t bid on, and just watched the scene of hundreds of people competing.
The competition was the most heated for novels because the most valuable books were the ones that were signed. Normally, authors for novels were the most renowned, so their signed books were the most valuable.
In reality, there were other kinds of books that were more valuable, such as biographies. The biographies for sports stars or pop stars especially—if those had their personal signature, those books would increase in value a hundredfold.
However, bookstores were not stupid; when these valuable books were sold, they were placed in special events, and did not end up in places like this to be auctioned off at low prices.
After the lifestyle genre, it was now time for the old books to be auctioned. Most of the treasure hunters were disinterested in old books; everyone knew that there was no treasure amongst them.
The history of America wasn’t very long, so they didn’t have ancient scripts like those in China. When the country was established, it was around the time when civilization had entered the era of printing machines.
In this situation, really expensive, old books would be rare. Bookstores would not even usually have them, so it was unlikely any would appear in this auction.
The auctioneers started, and the first stack was treated coldly. The price dropped to about 100 dollars, but still, no one wanted it.
When it came to the second stack of old books, many people remained disinterested. It was sold at its starting bid of 1,000 dollars.
Seeing such, Li Du and Hans stayed low. When it came to the fifth stack, they didn’t make any offers, but instead waited for it the price to drop.
As no one was interested in this stack, when the auctioneer was about to go to the next one, Hans raised his hand and said, "100 dollars. I’ll take it!"
Seeing this, some treasure hunters who knew about the capabilities of Hans and Li Du wanted to make a call, but the auctioneer didn’t give them a chance. Straight away, he nodded and said, "Alright, 100, these books belong to you, buddy!"
Some of the treasure hunters grumbled their disappointment.
"I wanted to bid for it."
"What’s in that stack?"
"D*mmit, I have a premonition: these two b*stards are going to strike gold again!"
Hans secretly raised an eyebrow at Li Du, and revealed a proud smile.