Chapter 71.3
Editor: Jodi
Although the probability of bid blocking due to excessively high transaction prices was low, Bai Jing still had to consider this possibility and try to avoid it.
Not only did he have to consider the value of the rough stones and guess the psychological prices of competitors, he also had to guard against bid blocking by sellers. Secret bidding was indeed not an easy task.
What’s more with Bai Jing’s current popularity and attention, once people discovered that he was bidding frequently, it would definitely raise suspicions.
By then, there would definitely be many people who would bid against him, and if he were to be outbid, he would definitely regret it.
So, he had at most two bidding opportunities:
One during the initial bidding, and the other before the bidding deadline.
However the current Bai Jing wasn’t suitable for bidding now.
After all, he had ‘seen’ the situation inside the rough stones, as one had imperial green glass jadeite and the other mostly jadeite of the glass variety except for some cracks, so it would definitely influence him. If he were to bid now, the price he bid would definitely be on the high side.
Gu Yuanzhao spoke up at the right time, “Ah Jing, is it difficult to make a judgement? Let’s take a look at others first, there’s no rush.”
Bai Jing took a deep breath, “Alright.”
By 4 p.m., he finished viewing the top 100 rough stones in the secret bidding area.
As they were all relatively good half-bet materials, he couldn’t just skim through them like he would in the open bidding area, so his pace slowed down noticeably.
And they were worthy of being the top 100 rough stones in the secret bidding area, as each one revealed decent jadeite at the edges, at least of water or glutinous variety, and even some rare colors like violet and red jadeite.
Of course, the base prices were equally impressive, as none were lower than 8 million starcoins.
Apart from A02, he had his eye on three or four other rough stones, however the base prices for these half-bet materials were high.
So although he submitted electronic bid forms, he felt that the chances of winning were low.
Bai Jing and Gu Yuanzhao were resting in the lounge area when a sweet voice making an announcement sounded, “Ladies and gentlemen, bidding for the rough stones numbered 3001-6000 in the open bidding area will begin in twenty minutes. Please proceed to the auction hall promptly.”
The announcement repeated three times, and some who hadn’t chosen rough stones yet pulled their hairs anxiously then picked out random ones they found pleasing then jotted them down in their electronic notebooks, waiting to test their luck.
We’re they being hasty? Yes.
However for many non-professionals, the rough stones they chose using this method weren’t much different from those they selected carefully.
Bai Jing and Gu Yuanzhao waited until everyone had entered before entering themselves.
And as their seats were in the VIP area, they didn’t have to worry about finding seats.
What was about to be auctioned now was the first group.
The large holographic screen displayed the numbers 3001-3300 as well as their corresponding base prices, however the only one Bai Jing needed to pay attention to was number 3300.
And as soon as it struck 4 p.m., after a brief introduction by the auctioneer, a 10-minute countdown began.
Those who had experienced bidding the previous day were obviously much more relaxed, with voices chatting amongst each other.
Because they all knew, that the last minute or even the last 10 seconds was when the real battle began!
On the other hand, those who hadn’t participated in bidding the previous day still wore extremely nervous expressions, their eyes fixed on the rough stones they intended to bid on, not relaxing for a moment, creating a stark contrast between the two groups.
The base price for rough stone number 3300 was 1 million starcoins, and in the first nine minutes, only two people made bids, with the highest being 2 million starcoins.
Bai Jing entered a bid of 6 million on the bidding device, but felt it wasn’t secure enough, so he decided to change it to 8 million.
However, just as he was about to press the numbers, he remembered the slight difference between the bidding king’s 131 million and 132 million starcoins and added another 300,000 on top of his original bid.
As the auctioneer reminded that there were only 30 seconds left, the atmosphere became noticeably tense, with everyone staring wide-eyed at the bid prices below the large screen, not even daring to blink.
The auctioneer reminded, “There are 10 seconds left, 10, 9, 8….”
Before the auctioneer could finish, all the bid prices for the 300 rough stones below started flashing frantically, dazzlingly fast.
And with his extraordinary eyesight, Bai Jing saw the glimmer on rough stone number 3300 flickering several times, the numbers increasing rapidly, causing his heart to pound fiercely. What if….
“3, 2—”
It was too late to make any changes in the last three seconds, so gritting his teeth, Bai Jing pressed the confirm button.
Then in the final second, he watched with wide eyes as the highest bid for number 3300 rose to 8 million, then finally stop at the number 8.3 million.
“That was close…”
He had held his breath in that moment, only exhaling now. Fortunately he had managed to win rough stone number 3300.
However he really hadn’t expected this piece to fetch such a high price– it was more than eight times its original value!
It was obviously a rough stone with very average performance, nothing particularly special except for its size, so strange—
If Bai Jing had looked at the data analysis, he would have noticed that among these 300 rough stones, the ones that looked to have good performances had dropped by twenty percent compared to yesterday, while those with locks and cracks as well as average performance had increased by fifty percent!
The reason? Naturally it was because he’d had seven rise in bet rough stones yesterday, all of which were from those that either had cracks or that had average performance, yet he had managed to unravel jadeite worth tens of millions from them!
With such high temptation, people naturally scrambled to follow suit.
Yes, so he had himself to blame.
In the time that followed, Bai Jing realized that half of the sixteen rough stones he had noted in his electronic notebook had skyrocketed in price, with two even surpassing 10 million!!
The teenager’s beautiful teal eyes widened slightly. The base prices were clearly only 1 million, were these people crazy??
He glanced at the notes about the water and weight of the jadeite in his electronic notebook: the jadeite in these two rough stones was worth around 12 million for one and less than 10 million for the other. They would hardly bring in any starcoins.
So he ended up only winning five rough stones, but with number 3300, it was still a pretty good haul.
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Thanks for the chapter! Too much popularity, lol
😘😊 Welcome
The people overspending based on their false equivalency about his success and the poor performance metrics of the stones will learn soon that there’s a reason he was targeting them, and it wasn’t because they were so valuable that he had to have them. It’s because they were cost effective at their original bidding rates. Now, with everyone overhyping them, they aren’t cost effective anymore and his interest is gone.