Wandering America: My kill threshold is far ahead

Chapter 98 Opening blind boxes, and getting the perfect one on the first try.

So expensive?

Compared to the small bronze Buddha he bought for $10, Ma Jie felt like he was being treated like a scoundrel.

"No, no, this is too expensive."

He handed the item back, and Valentina looked puzzled: "Why is it so expensive? My mother knitted it by hand. This kind of hand-woven item is very common in Mexico. People believe that it can replace the eyes of God and bless the holder with health, happiness and longevity."

Upon hearing the last part, Ma Jieke's heart skipped a beat. It seemed this silly girl didn't know the actual value of this thing.

If it were anyone else, there would be nothing to say; they would be tricked into leaving on the spot, resold, and make a huge profit.

After all, in this day and age, there are fewer and fewer traditional craftspeople. If you take Chinese embroidery and bring it over, the price can be several times higher.

Just as I was about to remind her, a couple suddenly came to the stall.

The girl's eyes were immediately drawn to the "Eye of God," and she excitedly picked it up and asked the price: "How much is this?"

Seeing that someone was actually interested in this, Valentina mustered her courage and asked, "How about $15?"

"OK, deal."

The buyer readily pulled out his wallet and handed her a $20 bill.

"Wait a minute," Ma Jie quickly stopped him, "15 US dollars is too little, it should be at least 300 US dollars."

"What?" The two men's eyes widened in disbelief. $300? You might as well just rob us!

"Jack, what nonsense are you talking about?" Valentina asked, equally puzzled. "You've startled my guest."

"What does this Asian guy want?"

Faced with his outrageous demands, the girl's boyfriend became very rude.

After all, no matter which ethnic group is referred to, adding the word "lao" to the end is basically equivalent to discrimination.

Ma Jie was certainly not going to tolerate him. He rolled up his sleeves and said, "Buddy, watch your mouth, or I'll send you to the dentist right now."

"You!" The other party wanted to get back at him, but his girlfriend stopped him: "Let's go, let's go, don't get into a conflict with this kind of person."

"You just wait, this isn't over!"

The boy left reluctantly, uttering some harsh words as he did so.

Ma Jieke was successfully amused. That's what a real coward is like; he'll always leave others to wait and see.

"Jack!" Valentina glared at him angrily. "You ruined my best deal!"

"Keep your voice down, silly girl, I'm saving you."

Ma Jie said slowly, "Now take out your phone and search for 'Eye of God' on eBay. Oh, and don't forget to add 'handmade.' Friendly reminder: you'd better be prepared."

"Hmph, let them search us, what's the big deal!"

Valentina was completely absorbed in her emotions, believing that Ma Jack had done her a disservice and caused her to lose $15 for nothing. However, this mindset subtly changed a few seconds later.

The product results show that, depending on the size of the knitted fabric, the cheapest is $99 and the most expensive is a whopping $7,000.

To further confirm the value, she uploaded product images using the photo function. After the system's matching and filtering, the price of the same size Eye of God was usually between $200 and $300.

"This...this is incredible." She still seemed a little incredulous: "These little things would probably only sell for 100 pesos in a Mexican store."

Facing this college student with clear eyes, Ma Jieke was as serious as a mentor: "Silly girl, let me tell you something you can understand. In your hometown, there is something called coca leaves. After being planted and harvested by farmers, and then acidified and purified by drug makers, the originally worthless rotten leaves are turned into kaccaine worth 1500 US dollars per kilogram."

"Sounds expensive, right? But guess what? Just ship this stuff to the US, and it'll cost $45,000 per kilogram—30 times the profit."

"And this is just the wholesale price. When it reaches the addicts, the retail price will never be less than $100,000."

"As the old saying goes, 50% profit can make you take risks, 100% profit can make you trample on the law, and 300% profit can make you fearless even on the gallows."

"I'm using this example to show you that different products can be turned from waste into treasure simply by changing their environment."

Hearing the end, Valentina looked at him awkwardly: "I'm sorry, Jack, I misunderstood you. I really didn't think that much of it. I thought..."

"Alright, alright, no need to explain so much. Just treat me to a meal or a movie later, consider it tuition."

Ma Jie politely waved to her, saying, "The saying goes, 'People can't teach people, but experience teaches people; you'll learn it in one go.' That's the principle. 'But why do you know all this?'"

"Didn't I tell you? Going to flea markets is the greatest pleasure in my life."

Knowing he had laid the groundwork, Ma Jie took out his newly acquired spoils from the canvas bag.

"See this? The original packaging videotape of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I bought it for $25, but its actual value is at least $240."

"And this toy car, I bought it for $30, but its actual value is $130."

Upon hearing this, Valentina was stunned. What kind of master-level expert in appraising collectibles was this? He had already earned over $300?

"And there's more." He picked up the "Infinity War" comic book in his hand: "It's a Marvel event magazine published 30 years ago, worth between $800 and $1000."

"How much?" Not only was he dumbfounded, but his hair stood on end.

She believed that Ma Jieke wasn't bragging. After all, he could even estimate the specific value of such an obscure item as the Eye of God. Could a popular comic be fake?

"So you made over a thousand US dollars in just a short time?"

Valentina swallowed hard. If she had that ability, she wouldn't have needed to sell all her possessions; she would have been financially independent long ago.

"Yes." Ma Jie shrugged, looking very casual, as if this amount of money wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap for him.

"Um..."

"What do you want to say?"

"Well..." After hesitating for a while, she asked with a flushed face, "Can you teach me a few moves? I think this ability is absolutely awesome."

"No." Ma Jie refused on the spot: "Because this is a talent I was born with, and sharing a talent with others falls into the category of superpowers, you know, like in Sense8."

"Okay." Valentina's eyes immediately fell into disappointment, because she had roughly calculated that even if she sold the Eye of God, she would still be more than halfway to pay off her credit card debt.

"But." Hearing "but," she immediately perked up her ears and heard Jack Ma say to her, "I was in such a hurry to leave today that I only brought a little over $100 with me. I've already spent almost all of it on these things, and I can't cash it out right now. It's a real shame. I'll have to come back next week."

"No...don't wait until next week," Valentina asked cautiously. "Or, how about using my money?"

Seeing that she took the bait automatically, Ma Jieke said with a wicked smile, "It's not impossible, but let's make it clear beforehand: if you lose money, you'll bear the loss yourself; if you make a profit, I'll take half of the profits."

Upon hearing this demanding condition, Valentina hesitated, but the thought of his glorious achievements immediately gave her the determination and courage to act again.

"Have you thought it through, silly girl? Time waits for no one."

Ma Jieke crossed his arms and looked towards the setting sun.

"Don't call me silly girl!" She hardened her heart. "Fine, let's do it. Happy cooperation, you homeless kid."

"OK, the first step towards success is to put away all this junk."

Ma Jieke didn't mind her using nicknames to retaliate, and helped pack up the stall and move everything into the carriage.

Ready to go, I entered shopping mode. After a brief search, I set my sights on a stall that specialized in selling Lego boxes.

A LEGO box is simply a storage box where all the collected LEGO bricks are piled up and then sold as a whole box.

Customers cannot touch the stones with their hands; they can only see the top layer, somewhat like the jade gambling stones in Myanmar.

This results in the contents of each box having varying values.

First, based on the age of the building blocks, just like comic books, the earlier the building blocks were released, the more valuable they are.

Then there's rarity: limited editions, discontinued sets, anniversary editions, classic reissues, and LEGO House exclusives.

As long as it's not a common item that everyone has, it will definitely have a premium price, and is called "plastic gold brick" by LEGO collectors.

"This is it." After careful selection, Ma Jie pointed to one of them: "How much, boss?"

"Fixed price, $200."

"Two hundred?" Valentina felt a pang of heartache upon hearing the price. "Jack, Lego cases are all about luck. Are you sure you want to spend money on this?"

"What, you don't trust my eyesight?"

Seeing his unquestionable expression, Valentina sighed helplessly: "Fine, anyway, I have no say in this matter."

When she handed the stall owner the $200 that she hadn't even warmed up yet, you could almost hear her heart pounding as it bled.

Several enthusiasts nearby saw someone opening a blind box and immediately gathered around to watch out of curiosity.

One of them, who looked like a blogger, was holding a GoPro and asked, "Hey buddy, can I film this?"

"Don't worry, I'll only photograph the boxes."

The United States has strict privacy laws, and taking photos of a person's face without their permission is illegal.

"I don't care," Ma Jieke said, indicating that he didn't mind being on TV.

With a whoosh, I reached under the box and pushed it up twice, flipping up all the unseen building blocks.

Everyone crowded around the box, their eyes darting around at the newly appeared blocks.

"Hey, this isn't looking good, bro. This is a huge loss." A kid next to him patted Ma Jieke on the shoulder: "Almost all of them are worthless new products. I wouldn't take them even if they were given to me for free."

"How dare you talk like that, kid? Go away, go play somewhere else."

MaJack was a little unhappy, swatted away his little paws, then fumbled around for a while and pulled out a large square piece of white plastic, about the size of two computer keyboards placed side by side.

This doesn't look like building blocks, but rather a base for placing building blocks, with a large bat flapping its wings drawn on it.

As soon as the item appeared, the knowledgeable blogger exclaimed, "Oh my god! I'm hooked! This is the 2010 version of the How to Train Your Dragon limited edition theme base. Look at the Toothless design, it's absolutely awesome!"

"Wow, how much can it sell for?" Valentina asked eagerly.

"So, are you planning to make a move?" Upon hearing her ask for a price, the other party immediately responded, "How about $400? I'll keep it for myself."