The Fiery Era of Siheyuan

Chapter 61, Trust Store

After leaving the rolling mill, Li Weiguo didn't delay, and rode directly to Beixinqiao.

Beixinqiao is not far from the courtyard house, and it takes about ten minutes to ride there by bicycle.

Li Weiguo had never been here before, so he found the trust store after asking someone several times.

A small two-story building with the signboard of "Beixinqiao Trust Store" hanging on it.

Trust shops were called pawn shops in later generations. Before liberation, they were "pawn shops." Its shadow can be seen in later movies and TV dramas.

"Pawn shops" were businesses that "exploited and oppressed" poor people in the old society. After liberation, pawn shops were closed.

Later, trust stores were born, specializing in accepting commissions and selling second-hand items.

The trust store here in Beixinqiao is quite big, with two floors and two stores downstairs, each with an area of ​​more than 100 square meters. Li Weiguo rode his car to the door and parked it, and walked directly to the sales department.

Walking in and looking, there are quite a lot of people here, about 30 to [-] people, all wandering around inside, looking around and looking for what they want.

When you first enter, here is the sales department, which is mainly responsible for displaying and selling various second-hand goods. As for the acquisition department, it is in a store next to it, mainly responsible for acquisition and consignment.

In fact, "trust" means purchase. After the store staff and customers negotiate the price, the items are directly sold to the trust store. As for how much the store sells, the customer has no right to interfere.

"Entrustment" means that the two parties negotiate the final selling price, and the store has no right to change it. Once the item is sold, the store will charge a certain handling fee. If it is not sold, it can be redeemed intact.

In addition, there is an unwritten rule that general customers can find or buy items in the sales department at will, but if you have no items to sell or entrust, you must not hang out or stay in the purchase department, let alone "stop walking". The acquisition department intercepts the items that customers want to sell or entrust.

Those who dare to cut off at the acquisition department and get caught will have to be branded as speculators, and then drink tea and parade through the streets.

Looking at the various products in the sales department, Li Weiguo was not in a hurry to find someone, but wanted to see what was there first.

Walking into the counter, there are quite a few products on the glass counter.

Old furniture, porcelain, copperware, clothing, shoes and hats, bags, leather goods, clocks, musical instruments, daily tools, etc., all kinds of things that are used in daily life are basically available, and they are all used secondhand goods. Or defective products.

There are even bicycles, radios, sewing machines, televisions, gramophones, and vinyl records, and all of them are free of charge.

In this era of scarcity, money can't buy the things you need, so it has become the norm to buy second-hand goods at trust stores.

However, it is difficult to buy large and in-demand items like these. Most of them are pre-ordered. It doesn't matter if you ask, they are already sold.

Come on, these big ones are not on my mind for the time being, and he won't need them either.

He bypassed the counter selling large items and the place where clothes, shoes and hats were bought and sold, and came to the counter selling watches.

He wanted to see if it was possible to buy rare watches or something.

Through the glass of the counter, you can see dozens of watches of various brands, new and old.

There are domestic Shanghai and Seagull brands, as well as foreign Rolex, Omega, Tissot, Plum Blossom, Peacock, Roman, Innag, Gas Needle, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and so on.

Just like what Li Weiguo imagined, all the watches that could move were bought by others.

The rest of them are all kinds of malfunctions, and every one that can move can only be used as a decoration after spending money to buy it back.

However, Li Weiguo didn't care. When he saw a rare watch, he bought it and threw it in a static warehouse. He would look for it later, and let him see if there was a skilled watch repairer.

These fault tables are not worth a few dollars, there are more than a dozen, more than 34, and even better ones are [-].

Nowadays, people are all about pragmatism. If you are good, you can sell whatever you want.

The fault was scrapped, the original price was one or two thousand, and now it is the same price.

Li Weiguo leaned his head against the glass of the counter, and suddenly found a very delicate watch that looked a bit old.

Li Weiguo used to like to pay attention to the collection and auction information of various famous watches around the world. He recognized the watch in front of him at a glance.

Pointing to the Patek Philippe, he said to the salesperson, "Comrade, please, take that piece for me."

The salesperson is a young man in his 20s with a pair of dead fish eyes. He is in a daze listlessly at the moment. He frowned when he heard Li Weiguo's words, feeling a little unhappy.

Li Weiguo also knew the virtues of these salesmen and didn't care about them. He took out the big front door from his pocket, handed one over, and said with a smile: "Brother, have a cigarette to wake up."

Dead Fisheye also got on the road. After taking the cigarette, his expression became much gentler. He took out the key, opened the glass cabinet, and took out the Patek Philippe from it and handed it over.

Dead Fisheye is kind, and reminded: "These foreign watches placed here are basically faulty watches, and they can't move the needle. And few of them can repair them. They are probably just decorations when they are bought back."

Li Weiguo thanked him for the reminder. If you can't find it if you can repair watches, you will look for it slowly. But if you miss something, it will be gone. Take it first.

Pick up this watch and observe it carefully.

This is a Patek Philippe Ref.2523 world time rose gold watch, produced in 1953 and sold by Paris retailer Gobbi, with the words PATEK PHILIPPE GENVE written in the center of the dial.

Later generations have publicly auctioned five Ref. 2523 rose gold watches, each exceeding a million, and there are also tens of millions.

I don't know why this watch ended up here, but Li Weiguo didn't care about it, and immediately said, "Comrade, how much is this watch?"

The dead fish eye is quite solid, and he reminded him for the sake of handing over the cigarette: "Do you really want to buy it? It's 70 yuan. It's still a bad one, but it can't go through the needle."

"Thank you for reminding me." Li Weiguo said with a smile: "The elders in the family like this stuff, buy it back to make him happy."

After Si Yuyan heard this, he didn't say anything else, and put the watch on the counter: "All right, you can make up your own mind. Anyway, the lowest price is [-], and you won't be refunded if you buy it."

Li Weiguo didn't intend to regret buying it, so he just nodded, issued an invoice, paid the money, and pocketed the watch.

Put it in your pocket, and then with a thought, put the watch into the space static warehouse, and wait for the watch repair master to take care of it later.

After buying the watch, Li Weiguo was not in a hurry to leave, he hadn't finished reading the things yet.

Bo Na continued to look at it for a while, this time it was a pocket watch.

Li Weiguo pointed to the pocket watch and said, "Excuse me again, this one looks pretty good."

Si Yuyan raised his head and glanced at Li Weiguo, like looking at a prodigal son: "Comrade, this is not cheap, it costs 65."

Li Weiguo doesn't care about the price of the things that Li Weiguo is looking at, isn't he always sprinkling water: "The old man in the family is rare for these things, it's okay, just this one."

Dead fish eyes don't matter, anyway, he didn't pay for it himself, seeing that Li Weiguo confirmed that he wanted it, he didn't say anything more, took out a pocket watch from the counter and handed it to him.

Li Weiguo took it, looked at it carefully, and confirmed that he was right.

Vacheron Constantin, 18K gold and enamel, with ivory dial, 1922.

This pocket watch was once sold for 2012 Hong Kong dollars (about 20 yuan) in the 16 autumn auction of Christie's in Hong Kong.

It can be regarded as a good collectible, nothing to say, invoice, pay, complete the formalities, put it in your pocket, and then send it to the space.

After buying two watches, Li Weiguo didn't plan to buy any more. Buying too many at once would be conspicuous, and he would also buy furniture soon.

He drank a cigarette for himself, and handed another to Si Yuyan: "By the way, brother, Tong Dahai, do you work here?"

Si Yuyan took the cigarette fork and put it on his ear, nodded when he heard the words, turned around and pointed him to the store next door: "It's in the purchase department next door. He is on duty today. The one on the counter is the one you can see when you go in."

"Okay, thanks."

After thanking the salesperson, Li Weiguo went out and went to the purchasing department next to him.

(End of this chapter)