In the early summer morning, the sun has been stretched for a long time, and the wind is blowing. www.biquge.info I rode an electric car with a bulging fishskin bag to the city, and today is Sunday, and I am going to the antique market in our city to sell books and antiques.

Qianzhou City is a city with a long history, more than 200 kilometers to the west is the hometown of Liu Bang was born and uprising, Liu Bang once fought to the death with Xiang Yu in our place, he personally sat in Qianzhou, Xiang Yu beat the flowers and water, this is one of Liu Bang's few big victories, laid the foundation for the establishment of the Han Dynasty, so Liu Bang misses this place very much, and sealed his nephew to be the king of the former mountain here, and Qianzhou City got its name from this.

Although Qianzhou City is a county-level city, our county ranks among the top ten in the country in terms of area, population and economy, and is an ancient and prosperous county and city. Our county has a history of more than 3,000 years, especially in the Han Dynasty, when the former mountain king was sealed, which added a lot of historical color here. In recent years, the city has expanded in size and gradually become a larger city.

The antique market of our city is on the west bank of the ancient canal, there is a mountain here, there is a Guan Gong temple on the mountain, there is a small square in front of the east gate of the temple, the small square extends to the north and south sides is the antique pedestrian street, there are antique shops, Buddhist furniture shops, bookstores, etc. on both sides, the street is not how wide, there is an open space in front of each shop, here is the place to set up stalls.

This antique market is named after the Guangong Mountain where the Guangong Temple is located, and it is called the Guangong Mountain Antique Market. Bounded by the small square of Guan Gong Temple, the north side is full of books, calligraphy and paintings, and the main stalls on the south street are antiques, most of whom are outsiders. Of course, we also carry antiques with us when we sell old books, and those who sell antiques will also get some thread-bound books, villain books, red treasure books, etc.

It was half past six when I arrived at the antique market, and I saw that Zhang Yuan and Wang Changxing's car had been parked on the side of the street, and the bags in the back seat had not been removed. At this time, most of the shops in the market were not open, and the street vendors selling used books had not all arrived, only a few stalls had been spread, and a few people were standing or squatting in front of the stalls to look around, and there were also Wang Changxing and Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan and Wang Changxing are almost the first to come to the market every weekend, and they are also in business, but they and I both "eat the market". What we mean by eating the market is not to bully the market and force us to buy and sell, but to refer to the fact that our supply comes from the market, that is, we buy books in the market and then sell them at a higher price in our own stalls in the market.

To do "eat the market" is not ordinary, you have to understand all kinds of old books, old items, but also to know the market price accurately, but also to have a stable customer, so that you can buy your favorite things from other stalls, and then sell them at a higher price, not only to make money yourself, but also to sell you the price of the stall owner, but also to buy things from your hands to be satisfied, simply put, people who eat the market want to make money, you have to make the three parties suitable.

For example, if you buy a book for a dollar from a stall owner, and it sells for a few hundred dollars, the stall owner can't say anything, but he is not happy in his heart, and he will not sell it to you if he gets a good thing in the future, and he will have to sell it for a high and bizarre price. Therefore, eating the market is like a broker, you have to be left and right, not only to make money for yourself but also for everyone to make money.

Among the people who eat the market, Zhang Yuan played well. Zhang Yuan mainly plays "software", software is our jargon, that is, books, paintings and other paper products. Of course, there are many things in it, such as thread-bound books, villain books, old books of the Republic of China, old diaries, posters, tickets, old photos, stamps, coins, tickets, envelopes and other paper products. These things left over from the old times are very complex, the good and the bad are uneven, the price is not equal, to accurately grasp the price of various items is not a day's work, it takes many years of experience accumulation, to ask more and learn more to have a small success.

Zhang Yuanren is lively, can speak well, and is not ashamed to ask, as long as he encounters something he doesn't understand, in the antique market, no matter who it is, as long as he understands this thing, he will run over to ask for advice. Over time, although Zhang Yuan is not very old, in his twenties, he has almost become the vane of the price of paper products in our antique market.

Wang Changxing and I are "both soft and hard", that is to say, that is, to play "software" and "hardware", the so-called "hardware" is relative to "software", but also our jargon, mainly refers to all kinds of antiques and old objects, antiques not to say, old objects mainly refer to old clocks, old record players, telephones, records, radios, tapes, etc., anyway, almost all the items before the eighties are collected.

We play both software and hardware, and if we want to make money, we have higher requirements, and we must know both paper and antiques. Not to mention the paper products, now the communication is developed, the mobile phone can be connected to the Internet, and when we encounter something we don't understand, we can not only have our own experience, but also ask Zhang Yuan, and we can check it online, and price it according to the price on the Internet.

It's hard to say about antiques, not to mention the price, it's troublesome enough to distinguish the authenticity of the object. In recent years, there has been a boom in collecting, there are more people collecting, and there are many counterfeits, and the market is full of fakes and fabrics, just like a sea of fakes. If you want to pick up the real thing in the sea of fakes, and then make money from the real thing, you really can't do it without a little way.

Wang Changxing is doing okay in this regard, he is older than me and Zhang Yuan, less than thirty years old. I heard him say that his grandfather's father opened an antique shop before the liberation, and he was the master who had seen real treasures, and Wang Changxing's grandfather was nurtured since he was a child, and he was also familiar with antiques. Wang Changxing grew up in his grandparents' house when he was young, and there are still a lot of things in the old man's house. However, somehow, he was also obsessed with old paper products, so he simply played with antiques and paper products. He used to open a store, but he didn't want to cheat people out of money with fakes, or a lot of money, because such things kill people, and now good goods are too difficult to collect, so he closed the shop and set up a stall with us, and I learned a lot from him.

As time passed, there were more and more people in the antique market, and the shops in the back were opened, and the whole market began to be lively. The three of us were still buying books in front of other stalls, and I don't know who shouted: "Old money is here!" Old money is coming! ”

As soon as the three of us heard this, we immediately dropped the books in our hands and ran to the south of the street, and the old wealth was ushered in on the opposite side.

Lao Cai was wearing a vest, pedaling flip-flops, riding a broken electric three-wheeled car was driving to North Street, the car was loaded with a few bulging fish skin pockets, from time to time someone dragged the pocket, Lao Cai turned his face and scolded, those people did not dare to pull the pocket down.

Lao Cai is about forty years old, dark and thin, with sharp beak and monkey gills, thick skin, and loves money like life. He and Zhang Yuan and Wang Changxing have known each other for a long time, everyone sells books together, plays cards together when they have nothing to do, often drinks and chats together, and the relationship is quite good. I met the three of them a little later, but we still got together because of similar interests, at least after I came, the three of them don't play mahjong and don't pull people around.

As soon as Lao Cai's electric three-wheeled car stopped, a group of people gathered around began to grab the pockets of the car, and Lao Cai scolded: "Don't move, who the hell will rob me again...... Lao Cai did not scold, and everyone let go of their pockets.

Most of these people around Lao Cai are booksellers, some from other places, some open used bookstores, some set up stalls in this market, some open online stores on Confucius's second-hand book network, and some collect old books.

Wang Changxing and Zhang Yuan and I ran over to Lao Cai just now and grabbed his car and followed here, and we were also grabbing book pockets when Lao Cai scolded just now, and we had to stop when everyone stopped, otherwise Lao Cai would be faceless.

Of course, Lao Cai also saw the three of us, and he pointed at us and said, "Let these three turtle grandchildren pick first, I damn owe them!" ”

We weren't angry, I took out a piece of colored striped cloth and spread it on the ground, and then we poured out the old fortune's book, and then we knelt on the colored striped cloth and scrambled to pick the old fortune's book, and others only looked at it angrily and enviously. The three of us first picked out the books we liked, and Lao Cai gave us an offer, if we felt that which book Lao Cai wanted was too expensive, we would just throw it aside, and the others would grab it at once. Then we settled accounts with Lao Cai, put the books on our stalls, put the things we brought ourselves, and started to do business.

Not only do the three of us sell books in the market, but we also have online stores, and we sell the best books online, so that we can make some money every month. Lao Cai also knows how we do business, and he is not angry when he sees us buying his books and selling them to make money, because his books are extremely cheap, and he almost becomes a wholesaler of used books, and he earns more money every month than us. Not only that, but there are also many celebrity calligraphy and paintings, rare books, propaganda posters, villain books from the fifties and sixties of the last century, etc., which are now very valuable, and every time we go to his house, we can be greedy.

How could Lao Cai have so many good books?

His hometown is somewhere in Anhui, his father-in-law in the 80s of the last century in our place to pull a cart to collect rags, to the 90s, his father-in-law made money in the southern suburbs of our city to open a scrap yard, the old man and his family from the countryside came here to help him.

When Lao Cai was working in the scrapyard, he often saw people looking for used books in the waste paper pile here, and then bought them at a high price. Lao Cai kept an eye on it, and chatted with a used bookseller only to learn that they had bought used books to sell at the antique market.

Lao Cai saw a business opportunity, so he didn't let other people who picked up old books come, and he began to pick up old books himself. Others buy used books from the purchase station for one dollar a catty, and the old man gives him the original purchase price, more than two cents a catty. Both the old and wealthy families are chicken thieves, and they know that old books are valuable, so they don't steal less. Lao Cai tried to bring some books to the antique market to sell, but he didn't expect that a book could sell several catties of old books, and a few books could sell a bunch of books.

Lao Cai didn't know that he didn't pick old books, but this start of picking old books brought him not only to make extra money by selling old books, but also to have more surprises. Because the old books are not only old books, but also calligraphy and paintings, philatelic albums, posters, villain books, etc., and even cash, watches, necklaces, etc.

It is not surprising that Lao Cai was able to pick up these things, for example, in the nineties, when Lao Cai first went to work at the acquisition station, the people born in the first and twenties were already seventy or eighty years old, and they kept passing away. Most of the people in the city are literate, and some people have accumulated a lot of books, letters, calligraphy and paintings in their lives, as well as their personal belongings such as diaries and photo albums, which have become old objects after decades.

But once they die, their children and grandchildren will sell these things to the yard in order to clean up and decorate the house. As for watches, cash, gold necklaces, etc., it is probably that some old people hide these things in broken books and rotten boxes for the safety of their property, and as a result, they forget or pass away, and they or others sell these things to the purchase station without discovering them, and they are picked up by the old books.

Of course, there are many channels for the source of used books at the acquisition station, and you can find good books as long as you guard the acquisition station.

Our business was mainly in the morning, and at ten o'clock, there were only scattered people who picked up some books to buy, and we began to play cards at this time, and the four of us happened to fight the landlord. Unexpectedly, Lao Cai, who is usually the most active in playing cards, stopped us and said that there was something to show us.