879 Big Brother’s Pride
Li Du thought that Conrad was a bit foolish. He had just made the worst decision. Bell had tried to be the middleman. Conrad had two of the best options. The first was to give Bell respect and give up bidding. This way, Bell would have owed him a favor. The second option was to keep his dignity, not give Bell respect, and fight Li Du all the way. In the end he chose a third option. He increased bidding and made Li Du furious. Only then did he quit bidding.
This meant that not only did he not give Bell respect, but he also did not successfully defeat Li Du by winning the storage unit. He had wasted his energy and pissed off someone at the same time.
Of course after he gave it some thought, perhaps that was not the case. In Conrad's eyes, he had made the best decision. He had given Bell respect when he quit bidding, and in the end, he had made the price even higher. Even though he could not defeat Li Du, he could piss him off.
Princeps gave him a thumbs up. "Well done, Conrad. This is the first time I have seen this Chinaman at a disadvantage."
Conrad hummed. "If it wasn't for that saint who stood up for him and because I gave him respect, partner, don't even think the Chinaman could walk away with that storage unit!" His tone was domineering, and his words were full of pride.
Princeps continued giving him a thumbs up, and he looked very impressed. However, the other people of the Tucson Brotherhood saw this, and many of them immediately lowered their heads. With their own big brother kneeling and licking a young outsider's boots, it had made these tough men feel deeply ashamed.
As the gang walked towards the next storage unit, Hans asked Li Du, "What was in the storage unit just now?"
Li Du said, "You saw it. It's a bunch of case files."
"What use do you have for those?" Hans pondered. "Any valuable cases would never be chucked away. The things in there must have been exposed."
Li Du said, "Who knows? I will take a look. Maybe the government and police station missed out on some useful things in there."
Following that, he had not joined in bidding on any of the storage units, but he had become the strategy adviser for the Flagstaff treasure hunters. He kept on evaluating each storage unit, and then told everyone about it, letting them decide for themselves.
This way, even though he did not get much reward, the treasure hunters of Flagstaff had all acquired something. They made money when they followed him, and they would be even happier to follow him in the future.
It was now afternoon, and everyone was a little spent. The mini and small sized storage units were finished. Now, auctioning the medium size storage units had begun.
The area of medium sized storage units was around 100 square meters. These storage units began to have larger sized items such as cars, machines, or complete sets of office supplies, home furniture, and so on.
The first storage unit was opened. There was a series of motorcycles inside. Conrad's eyes lit up after taking a look, and he was waiting by the storage door as he stroked his chin.
Li Du had already looked through the unit with the little bug. This storage unit was not bad. There were some motorcycles that were quite well kept, especially the series of bikes displayed out front. There were Harleys, Dodge Tomahawks, a Yamaha V-Rex, and other branded bikes.
These bikes all had labels from the police station. They were probably confiscated bikes from illegal street racing or recovered stolen bikes, and nobody had come to claim them, so they ended up in this auction.
The motorcycles were valuable, but Li Du did not want to partake in the auction. As everyone knew that this storage unit was valuable, they would keep on bidding, and this type of storage unit would not result in much profit.
The weather in Phoenix was very hot. Li Du ran to some shade he had found as Lu Guan went to buy cold drinks and ice cold beer. The gang stood together to drink beer as they watched the auction. Big Beard Carl walked over, and Li Du tossed him a bottle of ice cold orange juice.
He put down the orange juice and took a bottle of Carlsberg instead. He laughed. "The men of Flagstaff will only drink beer forever. We don't drink girly drinks like juice."
There was a bottle of juice in Li Du's hand. After he heard what Big Beard Carl had said, Li Du said, laughing, "Assh*le!"
Big Beard Carl asked, "Brother Li, what do you think of this storage unit?" A group of treasure hunters gathered around, waiting eagerly for his answer.
Li Du said, "This storage unit is valuable, but as everyone can see, there are at least 100 people interested in it. Everyone knows its value, so it is not possible to get it at a low price, and that means it is going to be difficult to earn more."
Big Beard Carl sighed regretfully and said, "Forget about it then."
The auction began. It was really heated, and the price of the storage unit kept climbing. The initial bid was $5,000, and it did not take long until it reached $50,000. It kept climbing until it was $100,000.
The treasure hunters were not enemies. This type of second hand motorcycle was not worth that much. When the price hit $100,000, there was already not much room for profit left. Most of the bidders had given up.
In the end, it was Conrad who shouted the price of $100,000. There was no one else competing with him. It seemed like the storage unit was going to fall into his hands.
This was the first storage unit that he was going to obtain. Moreover, when seen from the outside, the storage unit was really not bad. Thus, he was a little smug as he stood at the door of the unit and looked around, just like an overlord overseeing the battlefield.
Reeves and the others saw this scene, and he asked Li Du, "Brother Li, is there any profit from buying this storage unit for $100,000?"
Li Du hesitated before answering, "There should be a little, but not too much."
He was not very familiar with the market price of motorcycles, and the motorcycles in there were all normal motorcycles. There were not any antique bikes or limited edition motorcycles. Hence, it was not easy to give a valuation.
Reeves also looked around before saying, "This young man from New York was really disrespectful to Brother Li. I really don't like him. I don't want to let him take this storage unit."
"Me, too. We have to teach him a lesson. Who does he think he is?"
"Count me in. I'm not worried if it doesn't make any money. I'd be willing to pay just to teach him a lesson and get revenge for Brother Li."
"I'm in. Brother Li's pride should not be challenged by this stupid fella."
"I'm in, too."
Everyone understood Reeves' meaning. He was calling all Flagstaff treasure hunters to pool their money and buy this storage unit. Almost everyone had responded to his call.
"...One hundred thousand dollars, $100,000, $100,000… Alright, is there no one giving me higher price? Then I announce-" The auctioneer waved his hand as he almost gave the final decision. At that moment, Reeves raised his hand. "One hundred one thousand dollars!"
As someone suddenly popped up to bid, Conrad was a little stunned. He turned around and saw that the person who just bid was a Flagstaff treasure hunter. He smiled coldly and bid again, "One hundred five thousand dollars!"
"One hundred six thousand dollars," Big Beard Carl shouted.
Conrad continued smiling coldly. "One hundred ten thousand!"
"One hundred eleven thousand dollars." Dickens smirked.
Conrad was looking a little ill. He clenched his teeth as he said, "One hundred twenty thousand!"
"One hundred twenty one thousand dollars." Olly said, "This should be my turn to take the show. A storage bid of over $100,000, this is really great!"
The price continued climbing. The Flagstaff treasure hunters were ganging up on Conrad. They increased the bid $1,000 each time, as they were competing patiently with him.
Conrad was not bothered by this, and he looked pretty high on himself. In his mind, it was Li Du who gave the Flagstaff treasure hunters orders to bid against him, so now he was competing with Li Du's boys. This was embarrassing to him, so he winked at Princeps and said, "Partner, bring your men and take down this storage unit."
However, Princeps did not want to do such a transaction that had no profit. He said, embarrassed, "It has gone up to this price now. There's no point in bidding for this unit anymore. Conrad, just let it go. There's no need to fight these stupid men with money…"