Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 27 Counterfeit Phones Are Powerful

Leaving home at 18 to travel all over the country and graduating at 22 to travel all over the country are not the same thing, and they are not in the same world.

On the way back, Chen Xuebing recalled how his father taught him to fight and strictly controlled him, never allowing him to fight. He suddenly realized that his father might have thought he wasn't cut out for studying and left him with a skill to save his life when he left home at 18.

After all, in those days, being able to fight was a skill that could put food on the table, and it still is today.

Are the characters "兵" (bing, soldier) and "警" (jing, police) in their names also a way out arranged for them?
The old man has great foresight.

As a child, he idolized his father; as an adult, he denied his father; and as a mature man, he came to understand his father. Chen Xuebing suddenly recalled this saying. In his past life, he seemed to have left home early but hadn't actually suffered much hardship. He won over a large group of people with the "skills" taught by his father and smoothly became a boss.

He never imagined this step in his previous life. Now that he is truly venturing out on his own and facing the cruel law of the jungle, he suddenly understands his father. Has he truly matured?
probably.

Or maybe not.

In short, Chen Xuebing is very excited to have the opportunity to grow all over again at almost 40 years old.

In this life, he will gradually leave the world of the 18-year-old who left home to travel all over the country, and try to understand the world of the 22-year-old who graduated.

……

Before lunchtime, Chen Xuebing threw 15 yuan onto Zhao Wanping's table.

"Mr. Zhao, the money has been returned, along with the original IOU. Could you have someone deliver it to Liu Tao when you have some free time?"

"Hey bro, you've worked so hard! You're injured, why didn't you go to the hospital first? Come on, come on, I'll drive you there!"

Zhao Wanping warmly shook Chen Xuebing's hand to express his care.

Chen Xuebing glanced at Huo Xiaowen, whose head was covered in a wound, and did not refuse.

He did intend to take Huo Xiaowen to the hospital first, but Huo Xiaowen disagreed, saying that he had to deliver the money first. Since they had already received the money, the later they delivered it, the more suspicious President Zhao would become. They had already done their job, and they still wanted to ask President Zhao for connections. There was no need to rush to get her to the hospital.

Huo Xiaowen demonstrated the wisdom of the underworld.

Chen Xuebing initially wondered if those two blows had made him smarter, but then he realized it was just a matter of practice makes perfect. Having been injured in many battles, he had become complacent. While others might worry about his bloodied head, he was able to think calmly.

That damn tiger.

That's a bit reckless.

However, ever since he asked Chen Xuebing in the taxi, "Are you sure you can help me make money?", this guy has never considered the 15 yuan bonus. Zhao Wanping mentioned giving them money on the way to the hospital, but Chen Xuebing refused, and Huo Xiaowen also kept quiet.

Zhao Wanping paid the medical bills, exchanged a few pleasantries, agreed to meet at the warehouse the next day, and then left. Chen Xuebing then gave Huo Xiaowen the 3000 yuan he had taken from Sun Feng.

Huo Xiaowen accepted it readily, and said with a smile that he would treat Chen Xuebing to barbecue after the wound was treated.

Chen Xuebing was very satisfied with his judgment; bringing him here proved to be a good choice.

The doctor said Huo Xiaowen couldn't drink alcohol, so the two of them only drank some beer while having barbecue that night, as a way of celebrating the initial success.

……

It went very smoothly.

The next morning, before any shops in Huaqiangbei had opened, Chen Xuebing and Huo Xiaowen ate rice noodle rolls they bought on the roadside as they arrived at the warehouse.

After yesterday's events, there's no need to bring up the pretense of working anymore; Zhao Wanping cut to the chase:
"Brothers, are you looking for suppliers or want to learn some skills?"

After a night of reflection, Chen Xuebing's mindset had changed from when he arrived, and he simply said:

"I want to cooperate."

"Oh?" Zhao Wanping chuckled. "How do we cooperate?"

"Mr. Zhao, I'd like to resell some phones here. Could you give us an insider price? Also, we'd like to learn how to inspect the machines. Could you find a mentor to guide us? We don't need to learn repair. Since you have a repair department, any machines we need repaired or refurbished in the future can be sent to you. Just pay whatever it costs."

Chen Xuebing originally planned to start by collecting cheap second-hand goods outside the building. After all, to open up channels here, he needed some capital to go upstairs to purchase goods. However, with Zhao Wanping's channels, there was no need to be so honest. He not only wanted discounts, but also an entry ticket to the Huaqiangbei B2B business district.

Zhao Wanping had anticipated this, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Brother, you helped me solve a troublesome matter yesterday, so I have nothing to say. Whatever price we offer, you offer the same price—8% of the market price for the entire floor area. How about that?"

This condition essentially means sharing Zhao Wanping's supply channels, so he doesn't make a profit.

Chen Xuebing was startled.

He checked the prices of grey market phones on the second floor. They were already cheap, and if he could get them at that price, he could dominate the current market of new phones on Taobao.

Huaqiangbei is the source of "domestic" goods, with a complex origin, including counterfeit products, overseas parallel imports, and factory direct goods. But no matter the type, the core is that they are cheap. Distributors have to get their goods here. The prices that these large sellers who have been rooted in the market for a long time can get are not necessarily available to Taobao sellers who are just trying to do some small business. Even Taobao itself may not be able to get the same prices.

However, Chen Xuebing knew that this price probably wouldn't be free. A payment of 150,000 yuan would only amount to a commission of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan outside, which wouldn't be enough to justify Zhao Wanping offering such terms.

"Mr. Zhao, we don't have such grand ambitions. We just ask to be your downstream customer and get an internal discount."

Chen Xuebing refused the upstream channels and also rejected the conditions that Zhao Wanping wanted in exchange.

We can't collect any more debts.

Zhao Wanping sighed slightly upon hearing this.

A wise person knows how to exercise self-control.

The fact that Chen Xuebing was smart made Zhao Wanping a little more wary: "Brother, where are you going to sell your goods if you get them from me?" He had his own downstream distributors, and he would never offer Chen Xuebing a good deal that would allow him to compete with his own downstream distributors.

Chen Xuebing had prepared his explanation in advance: "Mr. Zhao, you don't have any distribution channels in Chongqing, right? I plan to go back to Chongqing to sell. To be honest, I haven't even gotten a temporary residence permit in Shenzhen yet. My distribution channels are in Chongqing. Once I've secured the supply, I'll go back and sell."

"Oh..." Zhao Wanping nodded slightly, somewhat disappointed.

Now that everyone's gone, there's really no hope of collecting the debts.

"How much can you produce in a month?" Zhao Wanping started talking business.

"It's hard to say, but I think a few dozen shouldn't be a problem," Chen Xuebing said.

Dozens of units.

That depends on whether it's a few tens or a lot.

Previously, Liu Tao had only purchased a few dozen units from him.

"Would you like to do the Little Smarty service?" Zhao Wanping suddenly asked.

“Uh…” Chen Xuebing hesitated for a moment when faced with this question: “It can also be sold.”

Although PHS (Personal Handyphone System) is a sunset product and destined to get worse, it is still considered to be of good quality and low price. Moreover, PHS base stations were completely replaced after the advent of 3G. He is in sales, so he doesn't have any inventory on hand and doesn't need to worry about the future.

Zhao Wanping nodded, scratched his forehead, and said, "Brother, if you want to talk about prices, I need to know your sales model. I won't hide it from you. The products here are high-standard labeled goods. We have our own assembly line, and production is planned. Fluctuations in raw material prices also affect us, so discounts can't be generalized. For products with more universal components, I can give you a higher discount. For products with more unique raw materials, there isn't much room for negotiation."

Zhao Wanping didn't explain it very clearly, and Chen Xuebing only vaguely understood it, but he grasped the core idea: Zhao Wanping didn't want him to make the choice, but rather he would sell whatever Zhao Wanping gave him.

Labeled goods.

Then it wouldn't be a counterfeit product anymore, but a complete domestic knockoff.

He had heard two explanations for the origin of the word "shanzhai" (counterfeit/knockoff).

One type originated in Hong Kong. Renting in Hong Kong is very expensive, and manufacturers that imitate brands cannot afford to rent in the city. So they build wooden houses on the mountainside as factories for production, and the products produced are called counterfeit products.

Another type comes from Huaqiangbei. Many electronic component manufacturers do not have the necessary qualifications, and they dare not mark the detailed production address when packaging. So they can only write "MADE IN SZ". "SZ" of course refers to Shenzhen, but it was later called "counterfeit".

Regardless of the interpretation, the term "copycat" is not far removed from Shenzhen.

Chen Xuebing had assumed Zhao Wanping was selling grey market goods, since grey market goods at least came from the original manufacturer. He was slightly disappointed to find it was a counterfeit. He asked, "Mr. Zhao, how's the condition of the assembled machine?"

Zhao Wanping seemed to have known he was going to ask this question, chuckled, took two cell phones from the table, and placed them on the table.

They're all Nokia.

Chen Xuebing picked up the phones on the table and turned them on. One phone had a black and white screen but a cool gold exterior, while the other had a color screen, was silver and black, and even had a camera.

Chen Xuebing thought he had brought out an original and his own for comparison. After examining them, he couldn't tell the difference between the real and fake. Even with the camera on, he didn't find anything wrong.

This is too obvious. If one of them is fake, this one definitely isn't!
To everyone's surprise, Zhao Wanping laughed and said:
"Both of these are products from our production line. The black and white screen model is the 3310 from 00, and the color screen model is the 6600 from this year."

Moreover, the official 3310 doesn't come in gold; the gold version is our own exclusive color. In terms of component parameters, it's not only no worse than the original, but we've also updated it several times. The 6600 is a new product, and we can also match the quality of the original manufacturer.

That's Huaqiangbei for you. Within 24 hours, you can find all the electronic components for mobile phones from around the world here. Our assembly capabilities and iterative development are unmatched. Both of Zhongguancun's major electronics markets source their goods from us. The older the model, the lower the quality of the original factory parts compared to ours.

Chen Xuebing suddenly realized.

It seems to be a high-end knockoff.

He seemed to have heard that a certain generation of Apple phones didn't have a red model, but it was made in Huaqiangbei (a major electronics market in Shenzhen) and looked very good. So Apple countered by copying it and created a red model.

"If you want those white-label phones, I can have someone take you to see them. They're very cheap, and the design and functions are very flashy. I saw a phone with a running light and a big speaker the other day. The back looks like a Ferrari sports car. Young people should really like it. However, the quality can't be guaranteed. The raw materials are all foreign garbage imported by the ship. After acid washing and polishing, they are repaired, and the connectors and packaging are basically done by hand. Some of them will black out if you drop them. They are completely incomparable to our products. Our components are made by ourselves and are brand new. Many foreign manufacturers come here to buy goods."

Zhao Wanping spoke with great pride about his products.

Chen Xuebing: "..."

Ferrari-like design, running lights...

He already has a picture in mind.

Young people like... but which young person would like that?

He couldn't help but glance at Huo Xiaowen on the sofa beside him, and found that he indeed showed an interested expression.

alright, you win.

Counterfeit phones... are really powerful.

It fulfills everyone's imagination.

"Um... Mr. Zhao, it sounds like your products are more reliable. Could I go to your counter to take a look? I can sell those items that have more stock and bigger discounts."

"No problem, Xiao Gao, take him to the counter on the third floor."

(End of this chapter)