Chapter 450 Cornucopia
In fact, from the perspective of the time, after the reform and opening up, the antique trade among the people slowly recovered.
It makes perfect sense to not call it “antiques” but only to call it “old goods”.
This is not only because the national laws and regulations at that time strictly prohibited this kind of folk cultural relics trading, and it was necessary to use "second-hand goods" to avoid taboos and provide a cover for this somewhat shady behavior.
It is also because after experiencing the catastrophe of the "movement", very few good things have survived, and there are not many things that can really meet the standards of antiques.
What was the definition of antiques in the past?
Kang Shude once told Ning Weimin about this.
The old man said that it is limited to Banpo painted pottery, Hongshan ancient jade, Shang and Zhou Ding and Yi, Qin and Qin bricks and Han tiles, Northern Wei statues, Tang Sancai, Song Guan kiln, Ming Dynasty Xuande furnace, as well as celebrity calligraphy and painting, Ming and Qing porcelain, Tianhuang Chicken blood, old inkstones, enamel carved lacquer, agate jade, rhinoceros horn tooth carvings, ancient bronze mirror coins, painted tobacco bottles, sachet fan pendants, tapestry embroidery and so on.
In short, the "antiques" mentioned in the past were all high-end and elegant things.
And when there were antique shops before, many well-known shops attached great importance to business reputation.
Even if people who don't know much come to buy something, as long as they are willing to spend money, they will definitely be able to buy genuine products.
But now, where else can I go to shop for money?
Most of what can be seen on the market are unimportant parts of the refund materials, which are only leaked out after people no longer want them.
Not only is the category low, there are all kinds of messy stuff, but the key is that the quality is not good either.
Such as stone utensils, food utensils, bamboo utensils, wooden utensils, bug jars, bird feed jars, smoking guns and wine utensils, wooden boxes, abacus prods, clocks and glasses, copper lock molds, these are all considered good Something.
However, the ones that are a bit high-end, most of them are damaged, incomplete, and even filled with a large number of poorly manufactured fakes.
Occasionally, I catch a prodigal and mistook the good things he had saved at home as worthless fakes.
You have to catch up with the person who receives the goods and have no eyesight before they can flow into the market.
After that, buyers who visit the "ghost market" will have to rely on their own fate to pick up the missing pieces.
Under such market conditions, we can only call it buying used goods.
How could it possibly be called an “antique trade” again?
So the old man believes that not to mention that the country does not allow it, but that the country has liberalized the policy.
I am afraid that it will be difficult for him to see the antique trading scene like in the past again in his life.
To put it bluntly, this industry is in chaos, there are no rules anymore, and there are fewer people who really know how to do it.
No matter how hard it is to reach a higher level, from now on you will just live in the shadows, making small fuss.
Ning Weimin had to admit that his master's words were largely true.
Under the current circumstances, the decline of the antique shop is obvious at a glance. Compared with the past, it is of course a world of difference.
But the old man’s views are biased, and he just blindly sees the bad things.
On the other hand, as a "experienced person", he pays more attention to these "bad" negative aspects.
First of all, things are rare and valuable, and you can make a profit without losing money.
The destruction of a large number of cultural relics has greatly increased the value of what is left in the world.
Not to mention that the old man himself admitted that the things he looked down upon in the past are all good today.
As for the fakes these days, they were all imitated during the Republic of China.
There is no risk of "eye-catching" when you get an antique that will be valuable in the future.
Even this is called a scarcity of chips.
On the contrary, it is more worth collecting, and it is easier to make huge profits from it.
Secondly, there are fewer people who really understand, and the high-end market is disappearing. Although this is not a good thing, it has a good side. ,
It undoubtedly makes antique trading more down-to-earth.
It is also more exciting and easier to confuse people.
You must know that only when there are many participants can real market prosperity occur.
In the past, only a few people loved these things that they shouldn’t eat or drink. That was a high level.
But then again, "no fish can be raised in clear water ponds".
This also limits the number of participants and the market for antiques.
It's like a glass field in front of your eyes.
Except for a few Chinese people who come to visit, most of the transactions have to be taken care of by foreign guests, so the stamina is weak.
On the other hand, it’s different when looking at the “ghost market”.
Old goods are mixed with antiques and placed on street stalls, which means that the threshold of antiques disappears in an instant.
In addition, it is possible to miss out on this market characteristic.
For poor people, stories of sudden wealth are undoubtedly the most attractive.
Naturally, we can attract more and more people and expand the market size and demand.
Eventually, antique collecting became a speculative behavior that can be participated by all people and has the entertainment value of gambling.
To put it bluntly, it is just like the evolution of the postal market.
It was indeed a purely cultural activity when it first started, but it can no longer maintain its purity when it comes to money.
So in the end, all those who really understood stamps and really loved collecting stamps disappeared from the postal market, and the postal market was completely reduced to a place for speculation.
The same goes for the ongoing "Clivia Fever" in Changchun.
More and more participants are not people who really love flowers. They just value the chance of getting rich by raising them, so they invest their lives and wealth in it.
It can only be said that this change may be a bit disgusting for people who simply regard these things as hobbies.
But for those who want to fish in troubled waters and make a fortune, it is the best thing.
The last point is that the old man is subject to the limitations of the times. All experience in measuring things comes from the past, and he has never considered the impact of technological development on people's lives.
You know, at the beginning of this year, the American Toffler's "The Third Wave" had just been published by Sanlian Publishing House.
Although the book accurately predicts that the advent of the "information age" will lead to tremendous changes in human society in terms of work, study, communication, etc.
But the old man obviously will not read this book.
Of course, it was impossible for him to imagine, let alone believe, how quickly those lost traditions and rules would be restored once modern communication tools were used.
There is also the Western trading model of auction, which will soon be applied to the antique trading in the domestic market.
And it will soon set a high-end industry benchmark for antiques with shocking and sky-high prices.
Therefore, the biggest difference between Ning Weimin and Kang Shude is in their understanding of the antique market.
Ning Weimin is not at all confused about "the flowers are becoming more and more charming", but is focused on "heroes emerge from troubled times".
He knew very well that it was precisely the current market situation that his master disliked so much that gave him the opportunity to "win in chaos and take the lead".
He loves this era of chaos and bleakness in the antique market from the bottom of his heart.
As for what he was worried about, it was nothing more than domestic laws and regulations.
He can't just collect all the cheap chips in his arms as happily and conveniently as he can with collecting stamps, calligraphy and paintings, and seal stones.
His speed of collecting funds is too slow, and there is no opportunity for large transactions at all.
If you want to get some good stuff, you can only rely on yourself to go to the "ghost market" to pick up missing items, or go to the cultural relics store to wait for the treasure.
To be honest, he is looking forward to the country opening up the trade of folk cultural relics as soon as possible.
But I am afraid that once that day comes, there will be very few good things left on the market, and the prices will be high.
It's really contradictory.
Unexpectedly, God seemed to understand his difficulties and unexpectedly pushed Sun Wufu, who was almost desperate, in front of him.
I was very surprised and gave him a key that could fundamentally solve this problem.
Don’t forget the reason why Ning Weimin was willing to accompany Sun Wufu to see Xu Laoliu.
A large part of the reason is because he wants to establish a straight-line trading relationship with these two people, so as to make it easier to "pick up the slack". Don't forget that this Xu Laoliu was not raised by humans, but he actually came to have a "rolling bag party" and made the kind-hearted Sun Wufu miserable.
But it must be admitted that the situation caused by Xu Laoliu is more beneficial to Ning Weimin.
Ning Weimin is such a shrewd person, he thought of it almost intuitively.
If he lends a helping hand in times of need, he will not only gain Sun Wufu's gratitude, but also pay off his past debts.
And from then on, there was a real person who was not afraid of losing face and was experienced in collecting second-hand goods, and served him loyally.
Doesn't this mean that he has a clone, which makes it easier to collect antiques.
He absolutely believed that as long as Sun Wufu understood the principle of wealth in the east and wealth in the west.
Teach him slowly what categories to accept and what categories not to accept, how to negotiate prices, and how to make customers happy.
The probability of this kid getting something good will be greatly increased compared to now.
To put it bluntly, Sun Wufu is a living "treasure bowl" for him, which is much better than collecting one or two dead treasures of the national treasure level.
Where can I find such a good thing?
In fact, this is exactly the case, if nothing else.
Two things that Guang cleared out from the "residual assets" of Sun Wufu's 222 buyout.
Ning Weimin got rich.
Because among those rags, there are really two good treasures, which completely became Ning Weimin's embarrassment to accept Sun Wufu.
The first one, hidden among the twenty or so pieces of porcelain, was spotted by Ning Weimin at a glance.
The outer wall is covered with flower glaze, and the inner wall glaze is blue with yellow inside, black inside with yellow, white inside with black, and a bright red wash coming out of the white.
Ning Weimin has never seen anything like this before.
And there was an unused bar of soap and a few new candles in the wash at that time, covered with dust.
But the problem is, real goods, good things, rare treasures, arrest people!
Once a knowledgeable person comes forward, the real thing will attract people's eyes like a magnet.
It feels like when a man is on a blind date, his eyes light up when he sees a beautiful woman, and he feels enchanted.
If it is a fake, it will look awkward if you push it to others.
In particular, Ning Weimin firmly remembered what Kang Shude said: "Good things are often deep and restrained."
He carefully looked at this colorful object, feeling that the color was bright but not out of place, and the shape of the object was stable enough.
I turned over the brush and found out that it was the year of Yongzheng again.
In addition, when this object is held in the sun and examined, it actually has a faint flowing color.
He concluded that this was a good thing, and it immediately caught his "devil's eye."
Why else would you be so willing to give Sun Wufu two hundred and twenty?
As expected, when he took it back to Kang Shude for appreciation, and then put the wash on the table, the old man's eyes shone brightly.
After watching it for two minutes, the old man made a conclusion on the spot.
“The thing you brought back is a relatively rare kiln glaze. This is a variety that was bred when imitating Jun kiln porcelain during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. It is fired with two or more glazes. Among them, the reddish glaze is called "Flame Red", and the blue glaze is called "Flame Green". The glaze of your brush is red and yellow, flowing and blending, and the glaze is applied throughout the body, and the glaze accumulation near the outer wall is obvious. There is no doubt that it is 'Flame Red'. The most rare thing is that it doesn't collapse or flush... What a good thing! Where did you get it? You have improved your eyesight. You can catch such a rare thing..." >
Of course Ning Weimin was delighted by the praise, but he didn't reply. Instead, he took out another thread-bound book from his arms.
This is the second one, which he found in those old books.
He didn't understand it at all. Just by the many red seals on the pages, he instinctively felt that the book was old.
Seeing that it was well preserved, I thought that the rare ancient books, either from the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, might be worth some money, so I took them back.
As a result, I never expected that the value of this thing is far more than the "flame red" one.
Furthermore, Mr. Kang is such a calm person, and he will react without looking at it. When he saw it, he was so shocked that he couldn't help but scream!
"Song version!" The old man picked up the book, his hands trembling.
"Yes, it is definitely a Song version. This is an authentic Southern Song Dynasty 'Zhejiang version'. Look at the characters, they are engraved in a typical European style, with rectangular fonts and meticulous calligraphy strokes. Every word is straight and beautiful.”
"Look again at the white mouth, fish tail, and double-column frame on the left and right. Especially here, there is a word 'kuang' at the bottom of the center of the page. This is the name of the engraver. Look at the paper of this book, it is made of jute. Paper is undoubtedly the best."
"There are two key points in identifying paper from the Song Dynasty and imitation paper from the Ming Dynasty. First, the paper from the Song and Yuan Dynasties was rougher and thinner, while the imitation paper from the Ming Dynasty was thicker than the imitation paper from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The paper is much more delicate. Second, the papermaking raw material in the Song and Yuan Dynasties was mainly hemp, so there are fibers of hemp on the paper. "
The old man was very excited, one by one. Point it out to Ning Weimin.
But Ning Weimin nodded, but he was more concerned about another issue.
"Old man, how much do you think this book is worth?"
"Why do you know about money! Don't know anything else?"
Kang Shude was a little disdainful, but still told him.
“I can’t say how much this thing is worth, but it must not be cheap. Because there was a saying before liberation that ‘a page of Song Dynasty edition is worth one tael of gold’. This book of yours, According to past standards, even sixteen taels per pound was worth several pounds of gold. What's more, these things are even less valuable now. But it's a pity that this book only has one copy and is not a set, otherwise it would be even more incredible. "
In this way, Ning Weimin is certainly beautiful.
Several kilograms of gold! According to the gold price of 30 yuan per gram, that is more than 100,000 yuan!
This is going to be sold, how many good things will it cost?
But he just thought about it.
Because he hadn’t been beautiful for a long time, the old man stretched out his hand and took the book away from him.
Not only did he lock it in the cabinet, but he also waved his hand at him.
"Okay, you have nothing to do here, go away."
Ning Weimin was immediately dumbfounded.
"Ah? You...what do you mean? That book..."
Kang Shude was confident.
"What's the matter? Did I give you the appraisal for free? How many times have we come when you ask, and you don't even bring me a bottle of wine to buy. Sometimes, I have to serve you the other way around. You eat and drink. I want to leave you something today, shouldn't I?" Ning Weimin's head was sweating. He was indeed in the wrong.
"No, Master, let's take the Song version of the book...Actually...it's fine if you like to keep it. But I'm thinking, isn't it worthwhile for us to keep it? You see, the stuff from the Song Dynasty is not easy to keep. If you really want to keep it, it's not worth it. It's worth hundreds of thousands, so of course it's better to sell it. Even if it's half of it for each of us, it's better than..."
Who knew that Kang Shude didn't care about him at all.
"You are thinking about using money to buy your new gadgets, right? How much do you plan to buy is enough? I also tell you, if you really sell this thing, you will cause trouble! In exchange for your rags, It’s even more sinful! Don’t talk nonsense! If you don’t leave, you don’t want to take the ‘Flame Red’.”
That’s all. With his attitude, Ning Weimin knew that there was no hope for hundreds of thousands.
Speaking of which, he is quite piss-poor.
After thinking about it, if that's the case, why bother?
I simply put "Flame Red" on the table and really left it.
"If you like it, tell me earlier. Just keep it for fun. Do you think I am just a stingy person?"
This was beyond Kang Shude's expectation.
The old man couldn't help but smile.
"Okay, I guess you have a conscience. You're not stingy."
Who knew it would be better if he didn't praise him? But with this praise, the truth revealed by Ning Weimin would not be listened to.
"Then, who are we to follow? Anyway, what's yours is mine, and sooner or later it has to be returned to me!"
Well, this time it was the old man who glared.
"I said you kid, what are you thinking about? Ah? Get out!"
PS: These days, people often complain at around 4 o'clock because they see differences in articles. I've tried my best not to affect everyone's lives. There really is no better way. I still hope these people can go to bed early. I don’t ask you to understand me and take responsibility for your own body.
(End of this chapter)