The default currency unit in this chapter is basically the Hong Kong dollar.

On the afternoon of October 7, Xiao Yifei left the winery early and drove to San Francisco.

Arriving at No. 214 Blockade Street, Xiao Yifei entered the building through an inconspicuous small door and came to Southby's San Francisco office.

There was already a brunette lady in her 30s waiting for him at the door of the office:

"Hello Mr. Xiao."

"Jennifer, I'm sorry to trouble you again."

"There, you are our majority shareholder, and it is right to serve you."

Xiao Yi flew here to participate in an auction, but the auction was not in San Francisco, but on the other side of the world, in Hong Kong.

Ms. Jennifer is the director of the San Francisco office, which is part of Southby's West Coast office, which is under the jurisdiction of Andrea's senior deputy director, and Andrea's superior is Jensen. Jensen welcomed Xiao Yifei's participation in Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, and directly gave him a minimum commission of 8% (like this kind of auction, the commission is generally more than 12%, which is equivalent to giving Xiao Yifei a 50% discount). And knowing that Xiao Yifei had to take care of the winery and couldn't go to the scene, he directly gave a special line entrustment, so that the telephone trading commissioner would serve him during the entire Hong Kong autumn auction. In order to let Xiao Yifei feel the atmosphere of the scene, he also specially asked Sotheby in San Francisco to provide video services for Xiao Yifei during the auction.

Southby's autumn auction in Hong Kong began on October 3, with two wine auctions, both of which were collected from private wine collectors in the United States, and the two auctions achieved a total of 60 million Hong Kong dollars, about 8 million US dollars, which was a good start for the Hong Kong autumn auction and even the entire 2009 autumn auction of Southby.

In the following days, "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy", "20th Century Chinese Art", "Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art" and "Contemporary Asian Art" also achieved good results, except for the one in Southeast Asia, which did not exceed 100 million Hong Kong dollars, and each of the other performances achieved hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Although the "Precious Watches" auction held on the morning of October 7, Hong Kong time, did not exceed 100 million Hong Kong dollars, the "Diamond Jewelry" auction held in the afternoon directly passed the 250 million Hong Kong dollar mark, including an 8.74-carat square Fancy Intense blue diamond ring with an estimated value of 35 million Hong Kong dollars, and it was auctioned for 43.78 million Hong Kong dollars.

There are also two auctions to be held today, one is the Qianlong special session that starts at 10 am local time on the 8th (18 pm on the 7th San Francisco time). The other is a special session on Chinese porcelain and handicrafts that starts at 10:30, and this special session includes the Qianlong throne and a series of imperial seals that Xiao Yifei wants to buy.

Xiao Yifei is obviously not here for the first time today, he was here yesterday to watch the diamond jewelry auction and tried to bid twice. Of course, Xiao Yifei didn't shoot anything, so many Jewish rings in his space were inlaid with diamonds or gemstones of various colors, and those who could be favored and left by Hans would definitely not be too bad. Seeing that a two-carat ring cost $200,000, Xiao Yifei's valuation of the drawer ring immediately increased again.

Xiao Yifei participated in the auction, mainly to get used to the currency unit, this time to run around, he has been used to using euros or dollars to denominate, if you don't get used to it in advance, when the time comes, you get the wrong currency unit, and you can buy something for 10 million Hong Kong dollars for 10 million US dollars, then it will be a cup.

Soon, it was time to get off work here in San Francisco, and only Xiao Yifei and Director Jennifer were left in the office.

"I'm sorry to delay you again."

"It's okay, it's still the same sentence, it's my honor to serve you."

The two chatted for a while, had a simple pizza, and the computer screen showed that the live auction had begun, and the phone on the table rang on time.

It must be Miss Su Wanru from Hong Kong.

"Mr. Xiao, are you there?"

"I'm here, and I'm going to trouble you to bid for me again today."

"It's fine."

In the auction a few days ago, this Miss Su was very relaxed, because Xiao Yifei had already read the catalogue of those lots, and those modern and contemporary works of art were basically things that he couldn't understand or didn't like, and even Xiao Yifei couldn't find a pair of things he liked in the Chinese calligraphy and painting works, and the winery was busy, so Xiao Yifei was too lazy to participate in the auction.

At the beginning of the Qianlong special, is Sosby from a Jew to collect the lot, the things in it are more miscellaneous, this auction is equivalent to the boxing match of the mat match, the warm-up match, so the pace is relatively fast, soon came to a seal, the seal is "to the landscape literature to entertain yourself", according to this seal, should be one of the eight Xiling Xi Gang's works, is indeed the Qianlong period of the work, but unfortunately this thing is ivory, Xiao Yifei likes jade, not animal products, after the auctioneer announced the start, He directly quoted a price of 2 million.

Miss Su raised her hand directly and said to the auctioneer:

"The customer quoted 2 million."

This sentence almost silenced the entire venue.

The auction was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, the space is relatively large, there are more people, the stage is the auctioneer, on both sides are the seats entrusted by the computer and the telephone, these two seats are in order to facilitate the auctioneer's observation, the position is relatively high, Jensen arranged the position for Miss Su in the middle of the first row, a very conspicuous position.

Miss Su has already attracted the attention of some interested people in the auction a few days ago. Because she never raised her hand.

Here are a few words about how buyers can participate in auctions.

In addition to participating in the auction on site, buyers can also participate in the auction in several ways, one is the entrusted auction, that is, the buyer does not need to be on the spot, nor does he need to watch the live situation, directly fill in a commissioned bidding agreement before participating in the auction, on this agreement, indicate the number of the lot you want to bid on, and the price range. Then the auction company will find someone to take a sign and help you participate in the auction, as long as it is within the price range you specified, and guarantee that the thing will be yours. Therefore, in important auctions, you can see a long line of people from auction companies, holding signs to help customers bid.

Although this thing is confidential, the disadvantages are too great, because beyond the price range you wrote, even if you can buy it for just one more penny, people will not help you add this penny at all. And even if you buy it, the price is basically at a relatively high position in the range you wrote, and the reason is known to everyone.

So the second type, telephone commission, is actually similar to the third type of computer commission. As long as you indicate the number of the lot you want to the auction company in advance, when it is the turn of the lot, the ladies entrusted by the telephone and computer will call you and tell you the on-site price and other information, and ask you to quote the price over the phone.

In this way, everyone knows that every lady entrusted by phone is not a customer, and the customers they target may be different for each lot, so in the auctions in the past few days, they have basically raised their hands to bid many times, but this Miss Su, who is in such a good position, has never raised her hand, because Xiao Yifei didn't pay attention to these sessions at all, and she didn't have anything to buy, so she could only be bored to watch her companions busy.

Finally, she raised her hand a few times yesterday afternoon, but soon there was no movement again. Now this sentence of 2 million can make the audience quiet, and another reason is that this price increase is too sharp.

This ivory seal of Xi Gang is estimated at 800,000 to 1.2 million yuan, and the starting price is only 500,000 yuan, Xiao Yifei directly increased the price to a price 75% higher than the high value of the estimate, becoming 4 times the starting price, such a price increase will basically not appear. This is obviously announcing to everyone that he is bound to win this lot.

There was a sign at the scene, and he didn't say the price, so he naturally added the smallest markup unit of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars. Everyone at the scene immediately turned their eyes to the telephone consignment seat, and even the auctioneer looked at Miss Sun.

Xiao Yifei thought about it and reported another 3.5 million. The price is almost 500,000 US dollars, and it is obviously expensive to buy an ivory seal from the Qianlong period, but Xiao Yifei thinks that the inscription on it is very good, "entertaining himself with landscape literature", with the twisted text, a literati temperament overflows on the paper.

Everyone who participated in the auction looked at the one who had just bid, and that one was also depressed in his heart, he also liked this seal very much, but when he encountered such a madman who raised the price, he didn't know if the other party would continue to rob him. However, his possessiveness for the seal prevailed, and he gritted his teeth and raised the card again.

Everyone immediately turned their attention to Su Wanru again, even if she knew that Xiao Yifei could see the live video, she still had to report the situation to Xiao Yifei:

"Mr. Xiao, the on-site bid is 3.6 million, do you still want to offer?"

Xiao Yifei thought about it, forget it, although he likes the text, but the ivory, he also holds it.

"If you don't add it, let it be given to him."

"Mr. Xiao, according to the usual practice, I still need to ask you, are you sure you won't increase the price?"

"No need, I'll wait for the rest of the thing."

"Okay."

Su Wanru shook her head gently at the auctioneer, signaling the customer not to increase the price. In the end, the people at the scene bought the seal for 3.6 million Hong Kong dollars. Many people at the scene felt that the price was too high, about 3 million was suitable, but this person was forced to spend 20% more money to buy it.

After two lots, it was time for Xiao Yifei to like something, a cinnabar lacquerware Ruyi, with eighteen Arhats carved on it. Ruyi has always been something that Chinese like, but generally Ruyi is jade. This Ruyi is estimated to be 20 to 300,000. The starting price is 100,000 yuan.

Xiao Yifei directly reported a "500,000." ”

As soon as Su Wanru quoted this price, the buyers who wanted this Ruyi below were depressed, and this lord came again.

After the people below competed with each other and added two hands, Xiao Yifei reported a 700,000 yuan. This price is higher than the psychological price of others, and after thinking about it, everyone gave up, so Xiao Yifei bought the first lot.

In the later lots of this auction, if they encounter jade, Xiao Yifei basically raises the price above the high price of the valuation first, so that the buyers who want to buy on the scene have to raise the price, especially a topaz bowl, which was originally estimated at 2 million to 3 million, Xiao Yifei directly quoted 10 million, forcing the final transaction to reach 12 million.

Xiao Yifei's behavior of raising prices will only benefit foreigners, but he has no choice but to suffer.