Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

Chapter 54 Collection
Yumi finally listened to Kang Qirui's advice and decided to learn singing skills before participating in the competition. Kang Qirui helped her sign up for a class taught by an associate professor in the school's music department. The associate professor ran a training class outside in his spare time, and the fees were quite expensive, so Kang Qirui asked Yumi to work in a clothing store to earn money.

Originally, Kang Qirui didn't want to get too involved in Youmei's affairs, but A Yao found Kang Qirui, and even Sachiko, who was in training in Beijing, called back specifically, fearing that Zhu Wanling would mind. So Kang Qirui always did things in front of Zhu Wanling, but Zhu Wanling didn't take it to heart.

"Mom, where are you going?" Kang Qirui came home from get off work that day and saw his mom going out. "Haven't you bought groceries yet? Then I'll go with you."

"No, the newspaper buyer is at the street corner. I took these newspapers to sell." The old woman lifted a large bundle of newspapers in her hand.

"Newspapers? Where did so many newspapers come from?" Kang Qirui was a little confused. He remembered that he had just sold newspapers a few days ago. How come there are so many again? It seems that their Kang family only subscribed to one newspaper.

"It's in A Yao's room. When I went in to clean just now, the newspapers were piled up in the corner, so I helped him take them out and sell them." said the old maid.

"Oh, then give it to me, I'll go sell it." Kang Qirui saw that it was quite a lot and heavy, so he took it on his own initiative.

The old woman nodded and said, "Okay, go ahead, I'll go cook."

"Wanling, help mom cook, I'll be out for a while." Kang Qirui went out with the newspaper, but only earned a few dollars.

After dinner, everyone came to the living room to watch TV "Young Master and Kangxi" together. The finale will be airing in a few days. Everyone was so engrossed in watching the show that just after watching half an episode, A Yao came out of the room in a hurry and said, "Who of you took my newspaper? Who took my newspaper?" He looked very anxious.

"Ayao, is this the one?" The boss who was reading the newspaper handed the newspaper to Ayao. "Of course not, it's my own newspaper." Ayao took a look and shook his head.

"Hey, Ayao, when did you buy a newspaper?" the old man asked with a frown. The old man was watching TV seriously, but was disturbed by Ayao's shouting, and he was very unhappy. Moreover, the newspapers at home were all ordered by the old man, and Ayao said that they were his, which made the old man even more unhappy.

"Dad, I'm talking about the newspaper I put in the corner of my room." A Yao explained.

"The newspaper in your room?" Seeing A Yao nod, Kang Qirui said, "My mother asked me to take it out and sell it this afternoon. By the way, I sold it for 7 yuan. Here it is." After saying that, he took out the money and handed it to A Yao.

"Ah? Sold it?" A Yao said with his mouth wide open in surprise. He took the money handed over by Kang Qirui very reluctantly.

"When I was cleaning for you this afternoon, I saw that your room was full of newspapers. It was inconvenient for you to walk, so I collected them and sold them for you. Why are you so nervous?" The old lady said while watching TV.

A Yao sat on the sofa absentmindedly and said miserably: "Mom, that's my collection. I'm still waiting for it to appreciate in value."

"No way? How can a few rotten newspapers appreciate in value? You are really obsessed with money." The boss didn't believe that a few rotten newspapers would appreciate in value.

"Boss, you don't understand." A Yao laughed at the boss and asked, "Do you know what the two major investment hotspots in Guangzhou are now?" The boss shook his head and said he didn't know.

"One is stocks, the other is collections. Did you know that the returns from collections are greater than those from stocks?" A Yao explained, "Do you know how much a 80 Year of the Monkey stamp sells for now?"

"How much is it?" The second brother and his wife didn't even watch TV, they just looked at A Yao.

"A few thousand dollars." said A Yao.

"How many thousand yuan for a stamp?" The second brother and his wife looked at each other, "No way? Isn't that more expensive than Sun Wukong?"

"Of course. Do you know how much a newspaper with Yuan Datou ascending the throne during the Republic of China period sold for? Tens of thousands of yuan." A Yao stood up and continued excitedly: "I feel sad when I mention newspapers. Hundreds of thousands of yuan are gone just like that." The old woman felt guilty when she heard A Yao's words: "Ah, then, what should we do then?"

"Mother, listen to my third brother's bragging." Kang Qirui couldn't bear to see the old mother sad, so he said to A Yao, "Is it an exaggeration to say that it's hundreds of thousands, third brother? The Yuan Datou newspaper is valuable because the circulation of newspapers was small at that time, and the number of newspapers in stock was very low. Secondly, the news itself is very valuable. What newspapers do you collect? What valuable news can it have?"

"You don't understand even if I tell you." A Yao said stubbornly, "Do you know what collecting is?"

Speaking of this, Kang Qirui was no longer sleepy. He smiled and said, "Okay, I will have a good debate with you, Third Brother. Collectors usually collect valuable antiques or other small items. Let's not talk about antiques. Then Third Brother, let me ask you, why are other small items expensive? Why do they appreciate in value? How do you judge whether they have the possibility of appreciation? Take your pile of newspapers for example, are they all valuable?"

"Uh" A Yao was defeated in seconds. He was confused by Kang Qirui. But he still said stubbornly, "Do you understand?" Others also looked at Kang Qirui, especially the second brother and his wife. They were very interested in anything related to money.

"In his book "The Great Learning Supplement", the Ming Dynasty economist Qiu Jun wrote: Although all things in the world are born from heaven and earth, they all need human effort to be useful. They are big or small, fine or coarse. Their power is shallow or deep, and their price is how much. This sentence means that all things in the world cannot be used without human effort. Only through human effort can they be useful. The size and fineness of the things they produce are completely determined by the depth of power. If the power is deep, the price is high. If the power is shallow, the price is cheap. So what is this power?"

Kang Qirui took out the posture of a teacher in school, citing classics and making everyone stunned. Only Zhu Wanling was fascinated by it. A serious man is really handsome.

"Guan Zi said: If there are too many things, they are cheap; if there are too few things, they are expensive. Mencius said: The unevenness of things is the nature of things. Qiu Jun attributed the value of things to natural endowments and human power, and people gave the infinite things of nature the value of use. Therefore, the nature of things includes two values, one is exchange value and the other is use value."

"Take the 80 Monkey Year stamp as an example. Its face value is only eight cents, which is its use value. But when we say collect, we don't mean to use it or send letters, so we should consider its exchange value. Scarcity makes things valuable. The actual number of Monkey Year stamps issued is only more than four million. It seems a lot, but after being distributed to post offices in provinces and cities across the country, the stamps were broken into loose stamps, and very few stamps can be preserved intact."

"Secondly, it is the first stamp with the zodiac as its theme, which is also its exchange value. That is why the Monkey Year stamp is so expensive. When it comes to collecting, the main thing you want is things with deep skills, that is, items with high exchange value."

So that's how it is. No one is confused. The second guy didn't understand and asked, "Then how do I know that this thing will have a high exchange value in the future?"

"This is unpredictable. Maybe that's the fun of collecting." Kang Qirui feels that apart from items that have high practical value, other collectibles really depend on luck.

For example, Blue-Eyes White Dragon is worth 8700 million. That's luck. If everyone else has lost it and it's the only one left, then it's valuable. If no one has lost it and it's still there, and there are many Blue-Eyes White Dragons, then is it still worth 8700 million? Obviously not. And whether your item is the last one or not is luck.

"But many things are destined to disappear, and we collect them. It's hard to make a lot of money, but we can still make a small fortune." Just when everyone was disappointed, Kang Qirui suddenly said.

"Hurry up and tell us." Everyone urged Kang Qirui to stop keeping the secret.

"Money." Kang Qirui said.

"Money?" Everyone was confused.

"That's right. Money is destined to disappear slowly. Take the ancient copper coins for example. Let's not talk about those antiques. Let's talk about the current ones, such as 1 cent and 5 cent banknotes." Kang Qirui took out his wallet and opened it for everyone to see. "When I was a child, 1 cent could buy candy, but now I don't have 1 cent in my wallet. It will definitely stop circulating in the future. What happens after it stops circulating? It loses its use value, but it has the exchange value of the evolution and development of monetary culture. It is a collection with historical and cultural significance."

"Yes, yes, yes. I didn't realize it until you said it. In the past, my wallet was full of 1-cent and 5-cent notes. After the economy improved in recent years, I rarely see them." Er Lao is a businessman. He understood it immediately. "No one has them, but I do. Isn't that because things are rare, they are more valuable?"

"Yes, banknotes and coins are really worth collecting." A Yao also nodded continuously.

Kang Qirui knew that in later generations, a one-cent coin from 1950 was sold for more than 24000 yuan. But if there are more of them, the value will definitely not be that high, so Kang Qirui said that big money is useless, but small profits are definitely no problem.

(End of this chapter)