Wandering America: My kill threshold is far ahead

Chapter 96 The King of Bargains Sweeps Through the Whole Store

"My God, you're so strong."

Valentina was a little taken aback; in her mind, the school's rugby players were nothing special.

"Get in the car, Miss Angel. Besides being strong, I have many other strengths waiting for you to discover."

He took the suitcase from her and put it inside, then Ma Jie nimbly jumped into the car and started the engine.

"Don't call me Miss Angel." Valentina struggled to fasten the seatbelt in the middle of the mountain, and brushed her bangs aside. "I can't bear such a title. I'm just an ordinary Mexican girl. I work in the slums just to earn a living. If possible, I'd even like to collect cans."

"Collecting cans?" Ma Jie was taken aback. "Is Jimmy trying to fool you? Don't listen to his nonsense. The profits from collecting cans are very limited."

"Then why are so many people still going to pick them up?"

"Because it's easy; it doesn't require much physical exertion, nor does it kill a single brain cell."

"Okay, then I'll try to find another part-time job."

"Are you that short of money?" Ma Jie asked knowingly. "As far as I know, students who can come to the United States to study don't come from poor families."

“That’s right, especially you Chinese students.” Valentina’s tone sounded a little jealous: “There’s a girl in our school named Liu Xiaoyue who drives a Lamborghini to school every day. Once I saw her showing off her trunk, which was full of designer bags that boys had given her. Any one of them was worth several thousand US dollars.”

Liu Xiaoyue? Ma Jieke felt the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

Ugh, who is it? It's so hard to guess.

The two chatted and enjoyed the scenery along the way, and after about 40 minutes, they finally arrived at the St. Bottom flea market.

This place is really far away. Judging from the surrounding environment and architectural style, it has a bit of a rural-urban fringe feel to it.

There was a gate and a payment window at the entrance. I found out that you had to buy a ticket to get in, which cost $5 a ticket.

I bought two tickets for $10 each and handed them to the elderly Black man in a security guard uniform at the entrance before I was finally allowed inside.

The road was lined with all sorts of stalls. Some vendors set up long folding tables, while others simply laid out a cloth on the ground. The easiest way was to open the trunk of a car, which served as a display stand.

We found a relatively lively spot, parked the car, and helped Valentina unload the storage box and suitcase.

After all the secondhand items she was going to sell were sorted out, Ma Jieke realized that there were no valuable items at all.

An old-fashioned SLR camera and a laptop can sell for around three or four hundred US dollars; the rest are mostly off-brand bags and extracurricular books.

There's also a bunch of uncategorized junk and broken items, the kind that you might not even pick up if you threw them in the trash.

"Okay, Jack, thanks for helping me."

Valentina sat on the small stool she had brought and gave him a sweet smile: "You can go about your business now, I can manage on my own."

"Okay, I'll just wander around for a bit and come back to check your stats later."

MaJack knew there was no point in staying; the flea market in the suburbs of the American server was different from the free market in the countryside of the Chinese server.

The main difference is that there is no habit of hawking or haggling; everyone strolls around quietly, stopping to look at anything that interests them.

The vendors won't bother you. You can pick out your items, ask about the price, pay if you think it's right, or turn around and leave if you don't. It's usually a fixed price.

The purpose of these items is primarily to dispose of personal unwanted items, not to make money.

Of course, reselling still exists; professional resellers love to buy up goods at flea markets at low prices and then resell them in Bay.

They profited from the price difference.

But this requires exceptionally sharp eyesight, and a person can often only specialize in one area. If you encounter something you don't understand, you won't be able to pick it up even if you miss it.

Arriving at a stall selling boxed videotapes, Ma Jie squatted down with great interest. At first glance, all the videos were classic horror movies.

Despite being in the streaming era, many American families, especially older adults, still maintain the habit of watching videotapes.

It's the same reason why music lovers might buy vinyl records even though they could listen to music online; it's all about the ritual.

I picked up a box at random. The cover showed a man with a ferocious face stuck in a door crack.

On the cover of the other box, there are two men and three women against a pure black background, with a ghost mask in the middle.

The third box features a strange figure with severely burned face and ten fingers like knives.

The others are all pretty much the same, and they all look pretty low on SAN value.

Although Ma Jie could recognize what kind of film it was, he still took the initiative to use his identification skills.

The Shining official videotape, produced by Warner Home Video in 1990, already opened, secondhand market price: $49.9.

A genuine Scream videotape, produced by Dimension Films in 2005, already opened, secondhand market price: US$29.9.

The original packaging videotape of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," produced by Blockbuster Pictures in 1984, is already opened. The estimated price for a secondhand transaction is $240 to $300.

When Ma Jie saw the reference price for A Nightmare on Elm Street, his heart sank, because this videotape was not displayed separately, but mixed with other films.

By examining the information, we have gained a general understanding that only videotapes released in the year the film was released can be called original packaging videotapes.

Later copies and releases didn't have much collectible value; in any case, the older they were, the more valuable they became.

"Sir, how much is this tape?" Without any unnecessary words, he picked it up and asked the price.

The stall owner glanced at it casually: "25 US dollars."

"OK, I'll take it." Suppressing his excitement, he took out 25 yuan from his wallet and handed over the money.

Then, you toss it into your oversized canvas bag, and you've made at least $200 in profit.

It's impossible to make a mistake; that's been thoroughly verified before. Whether you sell it to a pawn shop or list it on eBay...

They have no worries about sales.

After wreaking havoc at this stall, they went to the toy stall next door.

The stall owner must be a serious Jurassic enthusiast, as the stall is full of rubber dinosaurs, and there's a sign next to it that says everything costs 10 yuan.

After inspecting them one by one, they were basically all junk. Even if you could make a profit, it would only be a few dollars, not even enough to cover the cost of gas.

Continuing on, there was another toy store, selling nothing but building blocks, board games, and Transformers.

Below the stall was a row of plastic toy cars, the kind that you can find the real-life counterparts of.

After careful selection, they found a SWAT vehicle worth $130, with white SWT lettering printed on its black body.

Compared to the police car and ambulance next to it priced at $30, Ma Jie simply chose to buy them, earning another $100.

The next few booths were pretty much the same, mostly selling audio-visual products, vintage movie posters, and vintage vinyl records.

Dungeons & Dragons board game, plastic toy replica gun.

There's no way around it, Americans just love to have fun. They can make something out of any field, collecting all sorts of things.

After browsing for a while, I found a used bookstore, or more precisely, a comic book stall.

Several folding tables were pieced together, densely covering the entire surface, almost entirely filled with Marvel and DC comic books.

To Chinese people, this is just a comic book, what's so special about it?

But for Americans, rare comic books can sell for more than antiques, or rather, they are antiques in themselves.

The first issue of Action Comics, published in 1938, featured Superman's debut and received an 8.5 rating from CGC, selling for 600,000.

A staggering price of tens of thousands of US dollars.

CGC is an internationally renowned grading organization for collectibles, especially in the fields of comics and trading cards, where it is highly authoritative.

Similar rare versions include Spider-Man from *Fantastic Fantasy* and *Detective Comics*.

Batman in the movie.

Other figures such as Captain America, Hulk, and X-Men, especially those making their debut, are extremely valuable to collectors. If you're looking to find these at a street stall, you might as well go all the way to Las Vegas.

But having come this far, Ma Jieke activated his Golden Eyes and scanned the books one after another.

The 2020 Avengers issue features new characters Ghost Rider and She-Hulk. Secondhand price: 15.

US dollars.

"Dark Crisis" is a major event in 2022, setting the stage for the "Dawn of the DC Universe" plan. Second-hand reference price: $10.

Justice League vs. Godzilla and Kong, the latest crossover comic, secondhand reference price: $8.

By the end, Ma Jie felt like he was seeing double. Just as he was about to give up, a shocking piece of information appeared in his field of vision.

Infinity War (1992): A cosmic event that continues from Infinity Gauntlet, involving multiple heroes. Secondhand reference price: $800 to $1000.

Holy crap, this is a huge production... Looking at the Avengers group portrait on the comic book cover, the art style from 30 years ago is simply unbearable to look at.

Of course, things aren't much better now, but that's not the point. The point is that there are really people hyping this up.

I did a quick online search and found that the reason this comic book has increased in value is because of the global box office success of "Avengers: Endgame".

"Bro, I'm getting a little impatient with you looking at all this. Just tell me which issue of the comic you need, and I'll find it for you."

Just as Ma Jie was about to make his move, the stall owner suddenly came over and offered to help him look for it.

Since its inception, Marvel has published more than 27000 copies and features more than 8000 characters. Those that are active on screen are just the tip of the iceberg.

To avoid alerting the enemy, MaJack responded quickly, "I'm a huge Spider-Man fan and I'm collecting all the magazines about it."

"Hey, you should have said so earlier, buddy. I have a well-organized collection here."

As he spoke, he pulled a cardboard box from under the stall and placed it on the table: "Except for the rare editions that are generally recognized on the market, almost everything is here. Take your pick. I'm not afraid to tell you this, but I used to run a bookstore on the busiest commercial street in Los Angeles. A virus changed everything. I still have at least half a warehouse full of this kind of stock."

His enthusiasm had a surprising effect: it buried the previous book, "Infinite War," underneath it, leaving only a corner showing.

With no other option, Ma Jieke had to pretend to pick and choose, racking his brains for a way out of the predicament.

Damn it, if all else fails, I might as well just steal it. The main problem is that I can't be sure whether the stall owner knows what he's doing or not.

What if it was just carelessness that caused the valuable version to be mixed with the worthless one? Wouldn't it be obvious when I picked it up?

"Borrowing books can't be considered stealing—borrowing books—is it something a scholar would do to be considered stealing?"

Having mentally prepared himself, Ma Jieke decided to try something exciting.

>