Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 690 These are not good
Upon entering the antique shop, Chen Fan's first reaction was that it was too crowded.

Look at the artifacts of later generations; they seem to want to occupy an entire room for each item, and even put a bulletproof glass cover on them, as if the value of the item cannot be shown otherwise.

Looking here, the ones in the cabinet are alright. Although they're a bit crowded, packed tightly together, and stacked several layers high, at least there's a cabinet that's locked.

The one on the desk was truly unrestrained.

The porcelain pieces, large and small, were piled together like a street stall, just like the shops in a tourist area on an antique-style street in later times—obviously fake.

But most of the things here are real.

The reason I say "the vast majority" is because we can't rule out the possibility that there are absolutely no fakes here, right?

Chen Fan picked up a small porcelain jar and, without even looking at the mark on the bottom, determined that it was a Northern Song Dynasty official kiln porcelain piece, causing his eyes to twitch slightly.

Northern Song Dynasty official kiln pieces have always been treasures in the collector's world, with prices starting in the millions. The one in his hand is a masterpiece of official kiln, with a complete jar and lid, crystal clear glaze, and clearly visible painted decorations on the jar body. It could easily be worth tens of millions at auction decades later, but it ended up sitting on the table.
Zhou Yali leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Little brother, how much do you want to buy it?"

Chen Fan smiled slightly, then looked at the sales clerk and asked, "Comrade, how much are the items here?"

Looking at a room full of antiques, he asked how much they cost.
Faced with such an outrageous question, the salesperson was not angry. Instead, she gestured, "Please look this way."

Following his direction, I walked over to a counter where a salesperson stood and smiled, "These are all high-quality folk kiln pieces, cheap, the lowest price..."

He picked up a bowl at random, "For example, this bowl only costs 5 yuan, which is not much more expensive than buying a new bowl."

Then he pointed to other things, "We also have 8, 10, and 12 yuan options, take your pick."

Seeing that Chen Fan and the others were just looking and not saying anything, he raised his hand and pointed to the other side, "Please look at the porcelain over there. Those are all fine pieces from the official kilns, and they have high historical value. For example, the five famous kilns of the Northern Song Dynasty: Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, and Ding..."

Chen Fan's eyes widened instantly. "Which piece of Ru ware is it?"

The sales clerk paused for a moment, then coughed twice. "We don't have Ru ware. Would you like to look at something else?"

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly, but he ultimately didn't "cut" it out, mainly because he was afraid of getting beaten up.

At this moment, an elderly man from behind the counter came over and laughed, “This comrade really loves to joke. Not to mention that Ru porcelain is rare and extremely difficult to acquire, even if you did have one, it would be a national treasure-level cultural relic that is prohibited from leaving the country, and our shop cannot sell it.”

Chen Fan took a deep breath, looked around, then turned back to face the old man and smiled, "So, the items in antique shops have both a lower limit and an upper limit?"

The minimum requirement is to guarantee authenticity as much as possible. When you buy something, you are given an antique receipt, which is different from the receipts for buying antiques or works of art in later generations.

The upper limit is naturally based on national regulations; anything prohibited from leaving the country cannot be found here.

The older comrade understood Chen Fan's meaning and nodded in deep agreement, "Indeed!"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue. "If I want to buy a first-class cultural relic, where should I go?"

The old comrade took a deep breath, thought for a moment, clasped his hands and said, "If there are any first-class cultural relics for sale anywhere, please let me know, and my shop will immediately send someone with a large sum of money to go there, so as not to let the national treasure be lost."

Chen Fan was speechless. What are you talking to me about?

He immediately put his hands on his hips, hesitated for two seconds, then pointed and asked, "What's the price of these porcelain pieces?"

The old man smiled and said, "Antiques are all priced individually. All items in my shop are priced by senior experts in the industry. We are honest and fair to all, young and old."

As he spoke, he took down a large red plum vase and placed it on the counter. "For example, this large red plum vase with a narrow mouth and intertwined floral pattern from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty is priced at 220 yuan."

Then he took down a Northern Song Dynasty Ge ware vase and gently placed it next to the plum vase. "This celadon vase with tubular handles is priced at 280 yuan."

Zhou Yali leaned closer, examined it carefully, and whispered, "Is this porcelain from a thousand years ago? 280 yuan, okay..."

Then a large hand covered his mouth.

She turned her head and looked at him. "What?"

Chen Fan looked at her. "Are you trying to say it's very expensive?"

Zhou Yali blinked, instantly understanding. She immediately pushed his hand away, straightened up, and nodded with a serious expression. "So expensive."

His expression was a bit exaggerated.

Liu Juan and Ma Lan behind her nodded repeatedly, "It is indeed expensive."

One bottle costs as much as their annual income, how can it not be expensive?!

Chen Fan stood with a serious expression and his arms crossed, thinking about how to negotiate the price.

Consider that Wang Shimin's landscape scroll costs only 1200 yuan, Shen Zhou's colored landscape scroll costs 800 yuan, Bada Shanren's flower and bird scroll costs 800 yuan, and Wen Zhengming's landscape scroll costs 1200 yuan...

Thinking of this, Chen Fan gasped, then looked at the antiques all over the room and realized they were indeed very cheap!
When Zhou Yali said it was expensive, the old man wasn't angry. He calmly took out a stack of receipts from the counter, spread them out on the counter, and said, "These are the purchase receipts from our shop. Please take a look."

Chen Fan and Liu Juan leaned closer and looked at the spot the old man was pointing to.

Well, a Qianlong plum vase that sells for 220 yuan has a purchase price of 200 yuan, and a Northern Song Dynasty Ge kiln celadon vase with tubular handles that sells for 280 yuan has a purchase price of 250 yuan.

This price is truly a fair deal.

In fact, this difference between purchase and selling price is the normal situation in today's society.

Regardless of the product, the selling price is determined by adding a certain percentage to the purchase price.

This pricing convention will not be broken until next year, starting in 1979.

For example, the Hong Kong backpackers mentioned earlier, when they traveled to the mainland, paid the same price as the hotels listed on the door, just like their mainland counterparts. They paid between 50 cents and 1 dollar for a dormitory room and between 1.5 and 2 or 3 dollars for a single room.

However, when they traveled to Beijing in 79 and stayed at a guesthouse catering to foreigners, the price was outrageously expensive.

For example, the listed price is 2 yuan per bed, but they end up paying 20 yuan.

The price was many times higher than normal, so they definitely wouldn't agree to it and asked the waiter for the reason.

The response was that they were responding to policy changes, implementing operational reforms, and adopting differentiated pricing. Since all foreign guests have money, prices will be raised across the board!
Who would be happy about that?

Moreover, these backpackers are mostly Hong Kong laborers. Although their wages are higher than those of ordinary workers, at more than HK$2,000 a month, they don't have much money due to the high cost of living in Hong Kong and their frequent travel. Every penny they spend on the mainland is carefully planned in advance.

Accommodation fees have gone up here, but what about other places?

As a result, even though it was the first day of the Lunar New Year and the temperature was only minus 5 degrees Celsius, they had no choice but to wear down jackets and thick cotton-padded coats. The dozen or so of them squeezed together in a corner outside the hotel and slept for one night. As soon as it was light the next day, they hurriedly ran away.

After a couple of seconds of deliberation, Chen Fan realized that this was the cheapest time in history, and from now on, for antiques.

Back in the Republic of China era, a Qing Dynasty Qianlong plum vase could cost over a thousand silver dollars; it wasn't nearly as cheap as it is now.

So, once you cross this street, this shop is gone!
He immediately slapped Zhou Yali on the shoulder and said seriously, "Don't miss out, buy it!"

Zhou Yali blinked. "How do I buy it?"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked around. The items in the shop were mainly porcelain, which made up almost half of the shop. The rest were mostly miscellaneous items.

Ancient coins, jade artifacts, calligraphy and paintings, pottery, bronzes, and other miscellaneous items.

Yes, antique shops also sell calligraphy and paintings, but they differ from Rongbaozhai. Rongbaozhai mainly deals in modern and contemporary calligraphy and paintings, with its merchandise primarily consisting of the Four Treasures of the Study (writing brush, ink stick, inkstone, and paper), and also selling other cultural artifacts and miscellaneous items. In contrast, the calligraphy and paintings in antique shops are mostly ancient paintings. After looking around, Chen Fan quickly made a decision.

He ignored the folk kilns and slowly walked past the other counters, saying to the sales clerk he had met earlier, "This one, this one, this one, this one... help me pick them out."

Taking out a dozen or so items, Chen Fan then circled them with his fingers, saying, "I don't want these. I want the rest."

The five sales clerks in the store were all stunned and stared at him blankly.

The older comrade, being an older comrade after all, was the first to react, staring at him and asking, "You mean, you want both?"

Chen Fan rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "I don't want the pile of folk kiln pieces, and I don't want the dozen or so pieces I picked out. I want everything else. Could you please calculate how much it will cost?"

The older man gasped, rubbing his chin. "Young man, you're not joking?"

Chen Fan turned to look at Zhou Yali, "How much money did you bring?"

Zhou Yali didn't even need to count the money. She said seriously, "I have $100,000 here, and my dad has $50,000. Is that enough?"

As he spoke, he took out his wallet from his bag and then pulled out a thick stack of traveler's checks.

Chen Fan looked at the old comrade, "Fifteen hundred thousand US dollars, is that enough?"

The old man's heart trembled as he looked at the familiar traveler's checks.

He was quite worldly; when foreign dignitaries and leaders came to visit, some would take out tens of thousands of US dollars to buy things in one go.

But $150,000?
This isn't a matter of whether we have enough money or not; it's that we don't have enough stock in the store.

After catching his breath, he finally came to his senses and quickly said, "Please wait a moment, everyone. I'll go and ask the manager to come forward."

A short while later, the store manager strode out and, after asking again whether the customer wanted to buy such an expensive antique and confirming that the customer did have the money to pay, he immediately instructed the five people in the store to start counting the items.

It's actually quite easy to calculate. The store has a list of all the items, and there are records of how much comes in and how much goes out each time. You just need to remove what Chen Fan doesn't want and calculate what's left.

Two people counted the items, two people used an abacus, and one person took notes.

In less than an hour, all the items were inventoried.

The manager handed the copied list of items to Chen Fan. "Comrade, please take a look. There are a total of 578 antiques here, including 298 pieces of porcelain, 62 pieces of pottery, 27 paintings and calligraphy works, 60 pieces of jade, and other miscellaneous items such as ancient coins and bronzes, totaling 131 pieces."

These items vary in price, with the most expensive being a Ming Dynasty scroll painting worth 2600 yuan, and the cheapest ancient coins costing only two yuan each. Of course, there are also rare items that cost hundreds of yuan.

The total value of the 578 items is 138720 yuan. With the current exchange rate to the US dollar at 1.5771, the total is 87958.9 US dollars.

Zhou Yali muttered softly beside her, "For less than $88,000, buying so many antiques seems like a pretty good deal."

Liu Juan and Ma Lan stared blankly, their minds completely blank.

In just a short while, tens of thousands of yuan have been spent?
After the manager finished speaking, he handed the list to Chen Fan, saying, "Please check it yourself."

Chen Fan was not careless either. He held the list in his hand and checked the items he had sorted out.

Less than fifteen minutes later, he turned around and smiled, "Not bad, not at all wrong."

It must be said that, as expected of an antique shop, the variety of items is indeed comprehensive.

Although there are no national treasures here, the scope is broad, ranging from the Three Kingdoms period to the Republic of China era, which is perfect for people like Chen Fan who have research and collection needs.

As for the fact that everything here will be priced in "ten thousand" in the future, Chen Fan doesn't really care.

He didn't intend to sell it for small change... cough cough, although it's nice to look at things worth hundreds of millions, they can't be used as money, so it's fine to just keep them and look at them.

Several young people were busy packing items. They had readily available materials such as waste newspapers and straw stalks for protection, and they just needed to put them all in a large box, which was much more convenient than packing them separately.

Chen Fan, standing nearby, was chatting with his manager.

The manager asked curiously, "Are you buying so many cultural relics to ship back to the United States?"

Zhou Yali waved her hand and said seriously, "Ah, yes, I brought it back."

Chen Fan smiled silently to the side. His little cousin was quite nice; she knew how to say polite things.

I can't take it with me, and I won't take it. I'll put it in the basement when I get back, and then put it all on the display shelves in the attic.

I'll buy more things later, collect all the artifacts from the past five thousand years, arrange them in chronological order, and it will be quite satisfying to look at them.

We don't compare our collections with people like Ma or Wang; there's no need for that. We just collect for our own enjoyment.

Once the Ningjun Prince's Mansion is repaired, we can put everything inside, and that will be about right.

After chatting with Zhou Yali for a while and satisfying some of his curiosity, the manager then asked Chen Fan, "Comrade, I understand you don't want folk kiln pieces. Fine folk kiln pieces are extremely rare, and our shop doesn't have any at the moment. And when it comes to antiques, everyone wants the best, but..."

He pointed to the dozen or so items that Chen Fan had picked out, and asked, puzzled, "Why don't you want those?"

Chen Fan glanced at them and smiled, "Oh, there are a few duplicates in there, they're too similar, and their condition is slightly inferior, so we don't want them. As for the three items placed separately in the corner..."

He smiled meaningfully, "If I'm not sure, then I won't take it."

As for folk kilns, there are indeed many precious masterpieces. Some folk kiln porcelains are even more expensive than those from official kilns. Just like Gu Jingzhou's purple clay teapots, it depends on which master craftsman made them.

It's a pity there aren't any here, otherwise he wouldn't have left out or refused them all.

Unsure?
Upon hearing this, the manager's expression changed immediately. He gave Chen Fan a deep look, and his interest in talking vanished instantly. He then beckoned to the old man, walked over, and picked up the porcelain bottle to examine it.

The two men were quietly discussing something while looking at the three porcelain vases.

Chen Fan sat to the side, drinking the tea that the manager had ordered, and quietly waited for them to pack the boxes.

After a while, the manager came over, but he didn't mention the three porcelain vases at all. Instead, he said with a smile, "Comrade, you have a good eye. May I ask which company you work for?"

Chen Fan smiled. "Jiangnan Provincial Writers Association."

The manager was slightly taken aback. The Jiangnan Provincial Writers Association?
Looking at him again, who appeared to be in his early twenties, I couldn't help but frown and ponder.

He suddenly remembered a piece of news he had heard a couple of days ago, and immediately asked in a low voice, "Is the guest Chen Fan?"

Chen Fan smiled and nodded slightly, "You flatter me, it is indeed I."

Having confirmed his suspicions, the manager couldn't help but let out a long sigh and exclaimed, "So it really is Writer Chen. I've heard from some old friends that Writer Chen studied under Mr. Xu, learning history and literature. After that, he first studied artifact appraisal at the Jiangnan Provincial Museum, and a few days ago he went to the National Museum. In just two days, he thoroughly understood the museum's collection."

I initially thought they were exaggerating, but seeing it for myself today, I realize it's all true. Seeing is believing!

After getting to know each other again, the manager became even more enthusiastic and took the initiative to tell many juicy stories about the antique world in Beijing, stories that are not easily known to outsiders.

After chatting for a while, and once all the items were packed and boxed, the manager arranged for a truck to deliver the goods. Only then did he say goodbye to Chen Fan and the others, watching the two trucks drive away one after the other.

(End of this chapter)