"Miss… name your price!"
The counter owner looked helpless, but the word "miss" rolled off his tongue with practiced ease.
"One-thirty!" Xu Duo had already done the math in her head. She didn't hesitate in the slightest and even emphasized, "Original battery, 80% new!"
"Miss… that price is too high!"
Clearly, the counter owner was interested in closing the deal. Otherwise, he would've waved her off by now. "The more unscrupulous retail guys charge 200 yuan just to swap out a battery. That's a known market price. But bulk trade is different. My selling price is only 140 at most. Ten yuan profit—don't you think that's a bit…"
"Battery prices are very stable," Xu Duo replied, still all smiles, her tone confident.
"…" The counter owner realized he was dealing with someone who wasn't easy to push around. No matter how much he haggled, he probably wouldn't get anywhere. He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine… it's not that many. I'll take the whole batch."
"Total is one thousand yuan!"
Xu Duo paused briefly, her expression resolute, clearly not leaving any room for negotiation. "Cash only. Full payment up front!"
"Miss… that's not how business is done."
"A deal worth over a hundred thousand—there's no shortage of people in this market who can handle that, right?" Xu Duo shot back.
"…" The counter owner was speechless. It took him a long moment before he finally gritted his teeth and said, "Alright… leave the goods here. I'll have my guys test them one by one. Let's head to the bank to do the transfer, sound good?"
"Pleasure doing business!"
Xu Duo responded crisply and confidently.
It was 2011, after all. If it were three or five years later, a transfer worth over 100,000 yuan could've been done right from a smartphone. But not now. For real-time transfers, going to the bank counter was the safest way.
Sure enough, Huashenbei had banks aplenty, and plenty of counters too. They didn't wait long in line, and the transfer was soon completed. The batteries passed inspection with no issues, and the transaction went through smoothly.
It was now exactly 2 p.m.—still early.
Xu Duo's bank account now had a stable 130,000 yuan resting comfortably in it. As the saying goes: with grain in your pocket, your heart's at ease. Naturally, she wouldn't let the money sit idle. The only right way to handle money… was to make it grow.
Time to stock up!
She dove headfirst into the Longsheng Communications Building. This trip was for one thing only: bulk buying. The difference was that this building specialized in high-volume goods.
Scrap phone batteries had always been sold by the pound, with only loose singles sold by the piece.
At market rate, 0.5 yuan per pound was the going price. But those counter owners could flip them for 1 yuan per pound after a little handling, thanks to the volume—they had bigger buyers to sell to.
As for the top-tier big buyers who sold to processing companies? One pound could easily fetch several yuan.
"Buying iPhone 4 batteries! Two yuan fifty per pound! I'll take as many as you've got!"
Xu Duo shouted at the top of her lungs. If you wanted to make money in this line of work, you had to have a thick skin. So what if it was in public?
In her past life, she hadn't done well for herself—and part of that was because she didn't get this. It wasn't until much later that she realized just how important it was.
But now—things were different!
"Miss, you really paying two fifty?"
"Boss, really paying two fifty. Weigh on the spot, pay on the spot. But I'll need you to help move the goods outside."
"Sure, no problem… I've got two big boxes here, probably a hundred pound or so."
"Put them on the scale!"
Xu Duo already had a rough idea in her mind. She waved her hand decisively.
After that, one group after another came over. Any counter that had collected iPhone 4 scrap batteries came to ask, then lined up to weigh and make the deal.
She kept busy for over three hours. In total, she gathered more than 13,000 pound.
According to battery specs, each one should weigh 130 grams. But that's just theory. In reality, it was less. Factoring in loss and degradation, each battery averaged between 105g and 115g.
That meant these 13,000 pound roughly equated to 55,000 batteries.
"Spent 33,000… if refurbishing one battery costs 5 yuan, and I sell it for 130, then the net profit per battery is 124.5 yuan. With 55,000 of them…"
Xu Duo did a quick mental calculation—and the result startled even herself.
"Six-point-eight million?!"
To be precise, nearly 6.85 million yuan!
"Rich. Filthy rich… Huashenbei really is a place of miracles. The city of knockoffs, the land of miracles—no lies there!"
Xu Duo took several deep breaths just to calm herself down. Her brain started spinning faster and faster.
"No… wait… it's more than that!"
She snapped her fingers. Everything was clear without needing to say a word.
From here on out, she had to plan carefully and avoid drawing too much attention. After all, she'd caused quite a stir—who knew how many eyes were watching?
The last thing she wanted after being reborn was to get hauled off to be studied like some kind of lab freak.
She hired a truck to haul the goods back to her tiny rented apartment—barely more than a dozen square meters. Once there, she started refurbishing immediately. Then, she hired another truck to deliver a portion of them to Tongtiandi Building—more commonly known as Feiyang Tower.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]