The next day was Sunday (there were no weekends in 87, only Sundays were off every week), Li Yifan and Liu Lijuan made an appointment to go to the philatelic company together.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Li Yifan was waiting for her on the side of Gulou Street on his bicycle. In front of the drum tower is a main road, the road was not wide at that time, the main road is four lanes up and down, and there is a bicycle lane on each side. There are not many cars on the street, far from the scene of the traffic in the future, occasionally buses pass through, and there are quite a lot of bicycles, mostly black, with straight beams, and women's cars with curved beams. Loudspeakers on street lamp poles broadcast songs. The pedestrians' clothes are also colorful, and it is no longer the blue and black bags that dominated the world a few years ago.

A car bell rang in his ears, Li Yifan turned his head to look, Liu Lijuan, who was wearing a red dress, came from a distance on a black curved beam flying pigeon bicycle, Li Yifan smacked her mouth while looking her up and down, and Liu Lijuan's face immediately turned red.

"What are you looking at, haven't you seen a beautiful woman?"

Li Yifan stepped forward and grabbed the handlebar, and said with evil in his eyes, "Beauty, what's your name, make a friend!" Liu Lijuan raised her snow-white straight jade leg and kicked Li Yifan lightly.

"Stinky rascal, don't be poor, let's go. ”

"Chirp!" Li Yifan replied, got on his bicycle and walked towards the philatelic company.

Mobei City Philatelic Company is on the west side of the Provincial Post Office on Zhongshan Road, next to an alley. Due to the economic development in recent years, people's money has gradually become richer, and a small market for exchanging postal coins has spontaneously formed every Sunday.

Li Yifan and Liu Lijuan arrived at the philatelic company after a while. After putting away the bicycle, Liu Lijuan took the stamp pre-purchase card to the business hall of the philatelic company to pick up the stamps, and Li Yifan turned around and went to the small market.

From afar, I saw Mo Xiancheng showing a customer the mail book. Li Yifan stepped forward to say hello to Mo Xiancheng, and when the customer left, he said to Mo Xiancheng, "Uncle Mo, how is the business lately?"

"It's not like that, it's just a mixed meal. However, the postal market seems to have been good in the past two years, and you see, there are a lot more people exchanging stamps today. I heard that Beijing recently opened its first stamp market in Yuetan. ”

"I've also heard about it, it's said to be very popular, and what's even more exaggerated is that you need a ticket to enter the door, 1 yuan a piece. Li Yifan shook his head as he spoke, looking incredulous.

In 1978, after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, reform and opening up swept the country like a storm, and the national policy encouraged some people to get rich first, in fact, let the poor break through each other, regardless of white cats and black cats, and catch mice is a good cat.

At the end of the year, the China Philatelic Corporation quietly resumed operations in Beijing, located in Donghuamen, near Wangfujing Street.

After liberation to the front, at least hundreds of thousands of people in the country liked to collect stamps, and when they were reconciled with the former Soviet Union, the Chinese liked to collect Soviet stamps, as well as stamps from those socialist countries in Eastern Europe, what Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, GDR and so on.

New China's stamps are also constantly increasing varieties and colors, the level of design and printing quality is also constantly improving, during this period issued a lot of good stamps, such as "Mei Lanfang", "Yellow Mountain", "Butterfly", "Goldfish", "Chrysanthemum" and "Peony", favored by stamp collectors.

To **, philatelic companies closed down, philately became a "seal capital repair", stamps became a "capitalist weed", who dares to collect stamps, many people out of fear, but also burned the stamps that have been collected for many years!

As soon as the Philatelic Corporation opened, the enthusiasm of the collectors exploded like a blowout, and on the day of the new stamp issue, the business counter of the philatelic company was crowded with people, all of whom were rushing to buy the new post.

In addition to some newly issued stamps, there will also be some stamps issued before and during the counter, which will also arouse the desire of stamp collectors to buy.

Probably because their enthusiasm for philately has been suppressed for too long, they are reluctant to leave even when they walk out of the door of the philatelic company. They would gather in front of the philatelic company, in groups of three or five, exchanging all the information about the stamps.

Among them are philatelists, ordinary workers, government officials and students, and some unemployed vagrants, who come from different jobs and from all directions in the capital, but they all have a common identity here, that is, philatelic enthusiasts.

These people gather at the door of the philatelic company for two purposes, one is to exchange information and improve postal knowledge, and the other is to exchange stamps and enrich the collection.

Some of them are long-time philatelic enthusiasts, and some are new friends, but everyone's philatelic level is certainly uneven, and everyone's income level is very different.

Some people are eager to buy some stamps in order to enrich their collections, while others have some surplus stamps in their hands because of chance. In the first few years of reform and opening up, people were ashamed to talk about money, and it was reasonable to exchange stamps for stamps.

However, the limitation of exchanging stamps with stamps is very large, and it is more and more difficult to meet the desire of stamp collectors to improve the level of philately, so later they wandered out of these philatelic enthusiasts, they specially hoarded some stamps that stamp collectors especially need, they are also good at pondering the psychology of stamp collectors, they come at a low price to go at a high price, earn the difference, at that time in the philatelic circle their reputation is not particularly good, stamp collectors hate them from the heart, think that they are engaged in exploitation, and the society also gives them a contemptuous name, that is" Stamp dealers".

At that time, the philatelic companies issued new stamps were purchased with vouchers, and this card was a small book, printed with the words of the new stamp reservation card, only members of the philatelic association were eligible to apply for such a small book, and the purchase limit for each person was usually a set of stamps and a souvenir sheet.

Only through special channels can be purchased in bulk, in the past philatelic company managers must have been a bad deal, and those who have been entrenched in the door of the philatelic company for a long time stamp dealers usually maintain inextricable contact with the manager of the philatelic company, the manager will use his power to sell stamps to large households.

Ordinary stamp collectors simply can't buy the new stamps that are in demand at the business window, but stamp dealers have everything in their hands, the supply is abundant, and the prices are of course on the market, which makes the stamp collectors crazy, but they also have to pay high prices to make up for the shortfall. The huge profits were shared by the managers of the philatelic companies and the stamp dealers.

Mo Xiancheng is the largest stamp seller in the city. He began to resell stamps in the early 80s, mainly between Mobei and Beijing.

Li Yifan often comes to the post market to exchange stamps, and he is also very familiar with Mo Xiancheng. "Uncle Mo, what's the good ticket lately. ”

"The March release of the Raptor was good, a full set of 4. The design and theme of this set of tickets are good, and there are more people who buy it, so I am more optimistic about it. ”

Mo Xiancheng took out the philatelic album and opened it for Li Yifan to see this set of Raptor stamps. The four birds of prey are still or moving, walking or stopping. The big horn and the kite spread their wings and want to fly, the tiger head sea eagle and the vulture are majestic, and there is the momentum of arrogance and majesty, spreading their wings for thousands of miles; there is the wind of the king of birds sitting on the mountain and threatening the birds. Each picture is vivid and lifelike, giving people a sense of harmony and vigor that is about to come out. The pattern uses simple and elegant gray-white tones to faithfully reproduce the habitat of birds of prey.

"How much does this set cost?" asked Li Yifan.

"The face value of 1 piece and 1 mao 6 is now 2 yuan a set. ”

"Uncle Mo, what's the price of the monkey ticket recently?" Li Yifan asked again.

The Monkey Stamp, issued on February 15, 1980, is a set of 1 stamps with a face value of 8 cents, with a black golden monkey squatting against a red background. The author of the original painting is Huang Yongyu, the designer is Shao Bolin, and the engraver is Jiang Weijie, which was printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. The 80-year-old monkey ticket is known as the Gengshen Monkey, or Golden Monkey.

80 years monkey stamp is the history of stamps "famous stamps", it is the first zodiac theme stamp issued by the new China, the pattern is very beautiful, the printing is very delicate, especially by the philatelic enthusiasts love and welcome, the stamp stamp market price is very fast, and the price of the quadripartite and the full page stamp is higher.

"Monkey ticket 25, 100 quadripartite, 110 with factory logo quadripartite. Li Yifan was secretly happy when he heard this, and asked silently, "Is there a full-page ticket?"

Mo Xiancheng hesitated and said, "The whole page is rare, I don't have it at hand, if you want it, I can help you find it." But the price is quite expensive. ”

"What's the price?"

"It's estimated that it will be at least 2500. ”

"Then Uncle Lao Mo will help me find it. While speaking, Li Yifan took out 50 yuan from his pocket and handed it to Mo Xiancheng.

"You take this money, it's a deposit. Mo Xiancheng didn't shirk, took the money and put it in his pocket, and said to Li Yifan, "Yifan, then I'll help you find it, and you can take time to come over next Sunday." ”

"Okay, besides, does Uncle Mo have a commemorative postage envelope on hand?"

The commemorative envelope is a new stamp item, which was first issued on 26 August 1982 to commemorate the anniversary of the armed resistance of the Namibian people against colonialism and racist rule in South Africa. Circulation: 200,000 pieces. As of May '87, the Ministry of Posts had issued a total of 7 pieces, and the largest one had only 1.07 million pieces. Due to the general low quality of China's philatelists, most of the philatelists are heavy and light on the cover, coupled with the inconvenience of the envelope, so that it has not been valued for a long time, and the recognition in the market is not high at that time, and its due value has not been fully reflected.

"Commemorative cover, who wants that thing? There are a lot of things in the company that can't be sold, if you are interested, I will help you ask. ”

"Okay, I'm sorry Uncle Mo. As he was talking, he saw Liu Lijuan walking out of the door of the stamp company, so he said goodbye to Mo Xiancheng and walked towards Liu Lijuan.