A wealthy person with a reading panel

Chapter 117: Sending to Shanghai for Auction
The information comes with the contact information of a senior business manager of Dejia Auction Company.

Late at night, Zhou Qing did not call, but added WeChat first.

The other person’s surname is Zhao, and his name is Zhao Zhiqiang.

I sent a WeChat friend request, and the other party quickly accepted it: "Excuse me, who are you?"

Zhou Qing didn't waste any words and directly explained his purpose: "Manager Zhao, this is what I am doing. My last name is Zhou Qing. I have a Ming Dynasty Huanghuali armchair that I want to auction, so I got your contact information from a friend."

Zhao Zhiqiang didn't immediately inquire about the situation of the auction items. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Zhou, may I ask, who is your friend?"

Zhou Qing didn't mention Boss Ruoshui's name, but said, "Qin Yan from Jiangcheng."

Zhao Zhiqiang's mood suddenly lifted: "So you're Mr. Qin's friend. Mr. Zhou, do you have any information about your chair? I can send it to the experts right away."

Zhou Qing had already prepared everything. He asked the other party to give him an email address, and then sent over the photos, video materials, and size data that he had taken previously.

About twenty minutes passed.

He was using a pen to annotate on the paper version of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" the infatuated look of "Guo Xiang" when she heard "Jueyuan" chanting Buddhist scriptures: this moment hinted that she was obsessed with Buddhist scriptures, using Buddhism to escape or place her feelings for Yang Guo, and also laid the groundwork for this woman to establish the Emei Sect in the future?

The phone next to me rang a few times, and it was a response from the auction company.

He finished writing the last stroke before picking up his phone to unlock it and check it.

Zhao Zhiqiang: "Mr. Zhou, our Ming and Qing furniture experts in the Classical Furniture and Crafts Department have already taken a preliminary look at your submission. They are very good. If it is convenient for you, I would like to arrange a video call tomorrow for a preliminary appraisal."

Zhao Zhiqiang: "If the subsequent appraisal is suitable, I would like to invite you to participate in our special session of Ming and Qing classical furniture and crafts in November."

Zhao Zhiqiang: "Here are the relevant materials (attached)"

Zhou Qing contacted the auction company just to exchange the goods for money, and immediately said, "Tomorrow is no problem, let's do it in the morning."

The two agreed on a specific time and temporarily ended the conversation.

Things went smoothly and Zhou Qing was in a good mood.

"There aren't many Ming Dynasty Huanghuali armchairs left in the world, and it's rare to find one as good as mine. If the other person isn't stupid, they'll definitely value it."

Ming and Qing furniture is a popular item in the collecting world.

The chair is made of a panel and can be said to be genuine. As long as he can connect with such a formal large auction company, he no longer has to worry about the follow-up matters and can just follow the process step by step.

Continue to work on the novel.

When entering the intensive reading stage, reading novels is no longer an entertainment mentality, but a learning attitude.

The first step is to read the full text carefully.

In addition to analyzing the rhetoric and literary beauty of each sentence, we also need to analyze the writing techniques, the author's underlying purpose for writing, the behavioral and psychological analysis of the characters... and so on.

At this point, the quality of the work is evident.

Everything has two sides.

High-quality works can withstand careful reading and require more time to savor, but they also bring more "accumulation" after reading; if the quality is not that high, there are fewer things that need to be analyzed, and it takes less time to read a book carefully, but correspondingly, the "accumulation" brought about is naturally less.

Although Jin Yong's martial arts novels are popular works, they are considered to be of relatively high quality among all popular works.

So it's not very fast to read it carefully by sliding the film through the pages.

Zhou Qing was not in a hurry and read calmly - he now understood that all his investment and efforts were not in vain. Although the results of the draws after reading the first ten novels were greatly affected by luck, in the end all the "accumulations" would be reflected in the results of the draws after reading the famous books in this round!
I read until 2:50 in the morning before I finally finished reading the first chapter.

He closed the book, sat cross-legged for a while, and went to bed. The next day, he woke up at around seven o'clock, meditated again to cultivate his internal strength, did a round of morning exercises, and then drove to Phoenix Bay.

It was exactly 9:50 when we arrived at the 18th floor.

Zhao Zhiqiang, who had made an appointment, sent a WeChat message ten minutes in advance: "Mr. Zhou, our expert is already here. If that's okay with you, we can video chat at 10 o'clock sharp."

Zhou Qing replied: "No problem."

He moved the chair out of the master bedroom and sat on the sofa to wait for a while.

At ten o'clock, the other party sent a video call request and he answered it immediately.

There are three people in the opposite camera. Zhao Zhiqiang is a man in his thirties. In addition to him, there is Qin Liang, a senior appraisal expert in their company's classical furniture and crafts department, who is in his fifties.

Although it was just a preliminary video appraisal, Qin Liang watched it very carefully and used his mobile phone camera to check all the details of the chair through the screen.

After looking back and forth for twenty minutes, I finally concluded: It's not a big deal. Furthermore, this chair is most likely not the more common late Ming Huanghuali armchair, but more likely from the mid-Ming period.

Of course, the final conclusion must be identified in person and endorsed by the laboratory.

Zhou Qing knew what he had and was calm from beginning to end. However, when he heard Qin Liang's words, he couldn't help but secretly give him a thumbs up.

I thought to myself, this appraiser has something.

After hanging up the video, Zhao Zhiqiang took the initiative to contact him to discuss the delivery of the photos and other details.

If the item is not sold in the end, no fees will be charged throughout the process.

If it is finally auctioned, no fees will be charged in the early stage. After the transaction, since Zhou Qing does not have the cost voucher, 3% tax, 8% commission, and 1% insurance and other fees will be withheld. There will be no other charges.

As for the starting price, estimated price and increment, etc., they need to be discussed in detail when signing the formal entrustment contract.

That afternoon, Zhou Qing drove the chair to the headquarters of Dejia Auction Company in Shanghai.

I stayed there for two and a half days, and after the appraisal results came out, I discussed the starting price and estimated price with Zhao Zhiqiang, Qin Liang, and Song Haiyue, a senior expert and general manager of their "Bronze and Stone Antiques and Classical Furniture Department".

In the end, Song Haiyue's suggestion was adopted, with an estimated price of 380 million to 480 million and a starting price of 320 million.

In addition, Zhou Qing himself needs to set a reserve price.

This is the reserve price. If the buyer does not bid higher than this price during the auction, the item will be retained.

After a little thought, Zhou Qing set the reserve price at 322 million.

After the notarization and contract signing, it was the afternoon of September 11th.

After declining Zhao Zhiqiang's invitation, Zhou Qing took a taxi back to the hotel alone - he had driven here, but cars with out-of-town license plates were restricted during rush hours in the inner ring area of ​​Shanghai, so his car had been parked in the hotel parking lot for the past few days.

"According to Zhao Zhiqiang, the sell-through rate for Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture at Dejia's previous autumn auctions has reached over 80%. The chances of my chair failing to sell are slim. Even if it sells for a low price, it'll still be around 4 million yuan. After deducting taxes and fees, it'll still be around 3 million or so."

He sat at the desk in the hotel room and read half a page of the book carefully.

I got up and walked to the bed, looking at the bustling city outside, thinking that this was my first time in Shanghai, and now that I had finished my business, I was not in a hurry to go back. I would stay for two more days to experience the prosperity of this city.

Thinking of staying for a few more days, Zhou Qing immediately remembered that this hotel had a gym.

He immediately took the room card, put on his shoes and went out.

(End of this chapter)