128: Chapter 128 Dinosaur-Sized Banknotes in the Scrap Yard

"Anyway, tomorrow is the weekend. Why don't we just take the day off today and go camping at that place you mentioned before?"

A look of longing flashed in An Xiaonuan's eyes, but she shook her head like a rattle-drum. "No, I haven't handed over the documents in my hands yet."

"Then how about you go do the handover in the morning, and we leave in the afternoon?" Chen Sheng pointed at the ceiling. "We don't know if the people upstairs will cause trouble again tonight."

Hearing Chen Sheng mention that group of weirdos upstairs, An Xiaonuan immediately swallowed the refusal already on her lips. "Alright then. I'll get the handover done as soon as possible. Pick me up when you're done, and we'll go buy supplies together."

"Call me when you're finished. It just so happens that I need to go to the commercial street to handle a handover with Mei Xue as well."

Having decided to go camping, the two of them, now motivated, got out of bed immediately and were sitting in the car in less than half an hour.

Of course, this was also partly because An Xiaonuan hadn't arrived at the company yet, and her colleagues were calling to inquire (urge) about her whereabouts.

He drove like lightning to drop An Xiaonuan off at the Kangsheng Office Building. Watching her walk into the lobby, Chen Sheng immediately opened his system panel.

host: Chen Sheng

Level: Level 1

Upgrade Experience Points: 80/100

Unread Intelligence Count: 2

By the old rule, he first rubbed his hands together until they were burning hot, then clicked on the unread intelligence.

【Intelligence 1 for Today: A scrap recycling station located at No. 23-2, Qiuyu Lane, Ziyun Road, Jinniu District, received a box of old magazines yesterday. Tucked inside one of the 'Mengya' literature magazines is a 2015-edition 100-yuan banknote with a Dinosaur serial number, valued at 10,000-15,000 yuan.】

【Note 1: This intelligence is valid until the 7th at 16:40. After the deadline, this intelligence will automatically become void.】

"What is a Dinosaur serial number?" Ever since he got the intelligence system, Chen Sheng felt like he was hitting a blind spot in his knowledge every day.

Very consciously, he pulled out his phone, opened his browser, and typed "banknote Dinosaur serial number" into the search box.

After some searching, he learned that a Dinosaur serial number banknote refers to a banknote where the last seven digits of the serial number are the same.

Those with the last six digits the same are called Elephant serial numbers, and those with all eight digits the same are called Qilin serial numbers.

According to condition and the numbers, for the 2015 version of the 100-yuan banknote, those with average condition or ordinary numbers have a market price in the 3,000-6,000 yuan range. Those in good condition are priced between 5,000-10,000 yuan. Those in good condition with good numbers are in the 10,000-15,000 yuan range.

Based on the price range given by the intelligence system, it was easy to determine that the Dinosaur serial number banknote belonged to the category of both good condition and good numbers.

Having understood what a "Dinosaur serial number" was, Chen Sheng turned his gaze back to the system panel.

【Daily Intelligence 2: Scrap collector Qian Dashan received a batch of thermocouples yesterday. The thermocouples contain platinum-rhodium wire worth 20,000-30,000 yuan.

Today between 11:20 and 11:40, Qian Dashan will sell all the scrap he has collected over the past two days to the scrap recycling station located at No. 23-2, Qiuyu Lane, Ziyun Road, Jinniu District.】

"What on earth is platinum-rhodium wire?"

Hitting another knowledge blind spot, Chen Sheng typed "platinum-rhodium wire" into the search box again.

After some research, following his previous discovery of old clothes recycling, he learned about a new industry: scrap metal recycling.

Some metal parts contain precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium during the manufacturing process. Scrap metal recycling, also known as recycled resource recovery, involves buying these metal parts at scrap prices, then using technical and chemical means to separate and purify these "scraps" to obtain the precious metals, and finally selling them at the market price of the obtained precious metals.

Buying at scrap prices and selling at market prices—the profit margin in this back-and-forth, even after deducting labor and material costs, was substantial.

Take the platinum-rhodium wire mentioned in the intelligence, for example.

Due to significant differences in models, purity, and region, current prices are: Type S (90% platinum / 10% rhodium) is about 280-320 yuan/gram, Type R (87% platinum / 13% rhodium) is about 300-350 yuan/gram, and Type B (70% platinum / 30% rhodium) is about 450-500 yuan/gram. It is specifically affected by international metal market trends and recycling channels.

It was practically comparable to gold before a price hike.

However, Chen Sheng didn't think about entering this industry, mainly because he didn't understand chemical formulas.

As everyone knows, chemistry is the kind of thing where, if you mess it up, you really might kick the bucket.

He was thinking right now that all the old mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic products he had replaced over the years—he used to think trading an old phone that was a pity to throw away but took up space for a stainless steel basin was a good deal, but now he realized he had lost out big time.

After reading today's intelligence, Chen Sheng closed the panel, entered "No. 23-2, Qiuyu Lane, Ziyun Road, Jinniu District" into the navigation, and then drove straight to the scrap recycling station following the route provided by the navigation.

Since Qian Dashan would be selling the scrap to the recycling station, he could just block the door outside the station.

Driving to the destination, a small recycling station that didn't even have a sign, he checked the time. Seeing it was not yet 11 o'clock, Chen Sheng parked the car and walked straight into the recycling station.

After walking into the recycling station, Chen Sheng shouted directly at the man who was busy inside: "Boss! Do you have any old books, magazines, or anything like that here?"

The man looked up and sized Chen Sheng up, then immediately put down his work and said with a smile: "What are you looking for?"

"I do renovations. I took on a restaurant with a nostalgic theme and am looking for some old books, magazines, newspapers, and the like for decoration." Chen Sheng gave the excuse he had already thought up.

Hearing this, the wrinkles on the boss's face became even more pronounced due to his smile. "We have them, we have them. We just happened to receive some these past few days. They're all over here. See what you need and pick them out yourself."

Chen Sheng followed the direction of the boss's finger and found the pile of old books he had mentioned.

Things like "Xinhua Dictionary," "Three Years of Simulation and Five Years of Gaokao," and "Battle Through the Heavens"—there was quite a lot of stuff.

In this pile of old books and magazines, a cardboard box wrapped in tape was placed casually inside, stuffed full of old magazines and newspapers.

Because the intelligence mentioned receiving a box of old magazines, this cardboard box was immediately locked onto by Chen Sheng as his primary search target.

"Boss, go ahead and do your work. I'll just pick through them myself." Having found the spot, Chen Sheng said this to the boss first, then squatted down to start rummaging.

He first moved the entire cardboard box to the side, then dumped everything inside onto the floor, and then sorted out the old magazines and newspapers in good condition, putting them back into the box.

During the sorting process, he also successfully found the copy of 'Mengya' mentioned in the intelligence, which had been stuffed casually in the middle.

After finishing sorting the old magazines and newspapers from the original box, Chen Sheng started rummaging through the pile next to it.

It must be said that a scrapyard is really a great place to hunt for treasure.

No wonder so many novels love to write about scrapyards.

Just look at this: Chen Sheng hadn't even rummaged for long before a copy of 'Don Quixote' that was at least 80% new was dug out, and Chen Sheng put it directly into the box.

There was also 'The Rothschild Family,' 'Encyclopedia of Mysterious Human Phenomena,' 'Encyclopedia of Chinese Monster Stories,' 'Yao Wen Jiao Zi,' 'Selected Works of Mao'...

Can you believe it? He actually dug out a new book that hadn't even been unwrapped from this pile of old books.

Chen Sheng asked the boss for a snake-skin bag and didn't stop until it was more than half full.

"Boss, that's all. Please help me calculate the price."

"Alright, I'll go get the scale right away." The boss hurriedly brought over a floor scale. While weighing the items and filling out a slip, he quoted the price: "It's 103.6 jin in total. I'll round it down to 103 jin for you. I'm charging you 4 yuan per jin, so that's 412 yuan. I'll round that down too; you can just pay 410."

"How much?" Chen Sheng asked incredulously. "4 yuan a jin? You probably only bought them for 60 or 70 cents a jin, and you're selling them to me for 4 yuan? Damn, Boss, you're ruthless."

"That's different. That was wholesale, and this is retail," the boss said with a smile. "And I'm not overcharging you. The quality of this batch of old books is quite good. When I sell to people who sell old books, it's about this price too."

"Boss, who are you trying to kid!" Chen Sheng rolled his eyes. Did the boss really think he had never browsed for old books before?

At a second-hand book stall, a thin old book costs five yuan, or three for ten yuan. A thicker one costs ten yuan, and a thicker book can weigh a jin or even more.

In recent years, due to the impact of pirated books bought online, old books at offline second-hand book stalls haven't been selling well. At 4 yuan a jin, if you bought stock at this price, after deducting all costs, Chen Sheng could pat his chest and say that anyone running a stall would starve to death.

"Uh, you can't say it like that." The boss took out a cigarette case and handed one to Chen Sheng, deliberately lowering his voice a bit. "Little brother, I can issue legitimate invoices here."