Selling Diamonds
“Mr. Zhou. This is the appraisal result for the first diamond.”
The appraiser took out a note from the appraisal instrument. Diamond serial number 001, diamond weight 5.06 carat, color F, clarity VS1, stone cut EX, polish EX, symmetrical EX, fluorescence N…. The market price for this is 315600 USD. If sold to the Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation, its price is 252480 USD.
The diamond color ranged from D to Z. The earlier the alphabet, the purer the color. It began to start yellowing after H.
As for the stone cut, there’s EX and VG. In English, it represented ‘excellent’ and ‘very good’. It meant perfect and extremely good.
For clarity VS1, it meant “very slightly included”, has very few impurities (unable to be seen by naked eye). The highest quality is FL, which meant ‘flawless’ or perfect. This type of diamond is quite rare, and could only generally be seen in a diamond exhibition.
And fluorescence meant the color when the diamond was shown under ultraviolet light, which it would typically emit some blue or yellow light. N is for ‘none’ because there was no fluorescence observed under the visible light. So, it generally wouldn’t affect the diamond’s price.
For the second diamond, although it’s 6.12 carats, but because the color was only an L, and the clarity was only ordinary, the final price was less than 100k USD.
The appraisal appraised one by one until he reached one of them and exclaimed. “Oh, my G.o.d. How excellent!” he praised.
The twelfth diamond was 5.20 carats. The color D, clarity FL (flawless), stone cut EX, polish EX, symmetrical EX, fluorescence S (strong blue)….Finally, the appraiser gave out a top dollar price of 1.68m USD.
Diamonds over 5 carats with clarity FL are extremely rare. All of its attributes are perfect, except for the blue fluorescence. Many diamond lovers preferred non-fluorescent diamond because they thought such diamonds are the purest. But some also like the blue diamond because such diamonds represented romance.
The price of USD$1.68m was just according to the estimation of the general valuation method. But, if this was presented to a collector pursuing the perfect diamond, it would be absolutely more than this price. A blue diamond with perfect attributes, there’s absolutely no market price for this diamond.
Even Zhou Jian was hesitant to sell it. These 28 diamonds from Sun De Guang are most likely come from a diamond lover’s collection. It wouldn’t be from a diamond mine production as the quality there was not high.
The appraiser spent a short time and completely appraised the 28 diamonds. The total price that he gave out was USD$6.98m. After discounting , the purchase price that the Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation gave out was USD$5.59m.
After hearing this price, Zhou Jian already prepared his heart, and yet still couldn’t help but burst in excitement. This is equal to 30m yuan ah!
“Mr, are you prepared to sell all of it?”
Zhou Jian hesitated. He wanted to take out the perfect diamond very much because he felt that selling such a precious diamond to the Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation was too reckless and wasteful, similar to a wholesale. But, he really needed the money to invest now.
The appraiser saw Zhou Jian’s hesitation and suggested. “The Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation also perform p.a.w.ning business. If you’re not willing to sell, you can p.a.w.n the diamond here. You can redeem it again in the future. The annual simple interest rate is 7 percent. The deadline is 3 years. If it expired, then there’s no use.”
Zhou Jian calculated for a while. Seven percent is only about USD$100k, he could reluctantly accept it. Even if he redeemed it again in three years, this diamond price would also rise to be the same with the market price. He wouldn’t lose too much. So, he said: “Good. I’ll p.a.w.n this FL diamond. The rest, I’ll completely sell it.”
The appraiser showed the proof of the appraisal to Zhou Jian, and later, he gave a diamond VIP card of the Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation to Zhou Jian and said: “Because of the large amount involved, there’s a 24 hours wait for the account transfer time before it can be completed. This diamond VIP card allowed an overdraft of USD$1m from the Bounty Hunter Bank. In addition, by the virtue of this card, all the spending in all the industries of the BH financial group would enjoy a 20% discount, as well as priority.”
Zhou Jian nodded. Although he could even think with his knee about the status of this card, and what it symbolized. But to Zhou Jian, it didn’t mean much because he didn’t plan on staying long in the US.
Zhou Jian joyfully left the appraisal center. But Andy, as if he received the news, was waiting outside and at this time by his side, there’s a 20 years old Asian girl. It wasn’t clear which country she’s from. (tl: h.e.l.lo? Asian American?)
“Mr. Zhou. Are you satisfied with the appraisal result?”
“Very satisfied. I want to thank Mr. Martin.”
“No problem. I would like to introduce you. This is Lucy from Singapore. She’s prepared by our a.s.sociation to help with Mr. Zhou translate for the next two days. Her Chinese is very good.”
“How’re you? I’m Lucy.” Lucy used Chinese to speak. Her voice had a slight Hong Kong accent. It sounded a bit delicate.
“h.e.l.lo. Actually, I don’t need a translator. Thank you very much.” Zhou Jian waved his hand. He truly didn’t need a translator. Furthermore, he had a secret, which is the Ghost Killer. So, it’s not convenient to have a translator following around.
The female translator called Lucy appeared to be somewhat disappointed. She had heard from Andy’s mouth about Zhou Jian’s status and wealth.
Andy said: “Then Mr. Zhou also doesn’t need a tour guide?”
“There’s no need.” Zhou Jian rejected with a smile.
“Then it’s alright. I’d also reserved a room in the Vienna Hotel for Mr. Zhou. I think Mr. Zhou won’t reject this.” Andy arranged all these personally to maintain a relationship with Zhou Jian. Even if Zhou Jian wasn’t descended from the China’s ancient Wu aristocrat families, it didn’t matter. He’d learned of the total amount of his transaction from the appraiser there. If Zhou Jian could bring such big business like this each time, he would get a cut from it as an executive, which was already very considerable.
The Vienna Hotel was affiliated with the US Mafia., a six-star hotel. Just staying in it for one night would need over USD$1k. This is also only for the standard room. If it’s the luxury suite, it could reach up to USD$7-8k per night.
But, this type of luxury suite was rarely opened to the outside world. It’s mostly used to entertain the distinguished guests.
Zhou Jian thought for a while and then nodded. “Okay. Then, I’ll have to thank Mr. Martin.”
“Then, I will send a car to take you over?” Andy asked.
“There’s no need. I can go there myself.” Zhou Jian planned to return back the hotel where his body was. So, he didn’t want Andy’s people to follow him.
“Alright. Then, I’ll send you back to the underground bank.”
“Thank you.”
Zhou Jian returned with the car back to the underground bank. He came back to the hall. Linda was already waiting there for some time.
Once she saw Zhou Jian, she exaggeratedly said: “My Chinese hero. You finally came back.”
Once he heard Chinese hero this name, Zhou Jian felt like he didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. He said: “You are still waiting here?”
“Didn’t I said that I will wait for you? What’s wrong. Is it a bad thing to see me?”
“Of course not. But my matters had concluded. I feared that you might have your own things to do.” Zhou Jian’s meaning was that he didn’t need her help to accompany him anymore, so she could leave. Although Zhou Jian acknowledged that having a hot Western woman as a companion is a very happy matter, but with her following, switching the avatar would be inconvenient.
But Linda apparently didn’t have such awareness. She excitedly said: “Don’t worry about me. I was recently too idle! I’m just left with completing my graduation thesis. And you know that writing the archaeology paper doesn’t need to do any experiment. As long as I have access to the information to write my own opinion, then it’s good.”
In the US, the winter vacation is very early, because Christmas Day is equivalent to the Spring Festival. And it’s December now, so Linda wanted to immediately go for her winter vacation.
“You’re still not familiar with Las Vegas. I can be your guide and translator. I grew up in Las Vegas after all.”
“Er….Actually, I can generally understand the speech here. And as for travelling, I’m not planning to go out to play.”
“Didn’t you Chinese has a saying called ‘do as the host please’? Since Qing Yun had given you to me, I can arrange for you.”
Zhou Jian was speechless. What are you talking about? This Western girl is too warm and friendly. It made him felt a bit unbearable. “That Andy had already arranged a room for me. You don’t need to arrange anything. This is the VIP card.”
He’s afraid that Linda wouldn’t believe him. Zhou Jian revealed Andy’s VIP card that he gave him. With this card, he could return to his hotel and exchanged the room.
“This is…..my G.o.d.” Linda was like a panda looking at the card in Zhou Jian’s hand. Her deep blue eyes grew wider and bigger while staring at it. “This is the VIP card for the Vienna Hotel luxury suite. Unexpectedly, you can attain this…”
“Er. Luxury suite. How much would it cost for a night?”
“USD$9k. And this was after discount by relying on the Bounty Hunter Bank diamond VIP card. For the average person, it would cost more than $10k.”
“Really expensive.” Zhou Jian was secretly flabbergasted. USD$9k didn’t feel like much, but if he converted it back to Chinese yuan, it would be around 60k yuan. It’s enough to buy a small residential area in a remote city. It’s almost the same as the down payment price. In China, many people struggled to rush around to buy a house. But for the rich, this money was barely enough for them to spend for the night. This is the gap between the high society and the gra.s.s-root.
However, the Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation had earned at least USD$1m from him. So, to give him something less than $10k to spend for a night was nothing much.
Of course, Linda didn’t know this. She continued: “Furthermore, this luxury suite couldn’t be stayed just because you’re rich. It’s used to greet distinguished guest like the Mafia in general. In Las Vegas, of all the hotel under the Mafia financial group, there are less than 10 rooms of the same rank. But there are many of the Mafia’s distinguished guests. So, most of the time, this luxury suite couldn’t be booked.”
Once she said this, Linda’s eyes were already shining. But she was feeling a bit strange in her heart. How could Zhou Jian such a young man received such a big face. Is he some kind of extraordinary character in China, ?
“Originally, it’s like this. Because it’s the winter now and so, it’s the offseason. There’s a lot more empty rooms in the hotels of the Mafia financial group.” (tl: no way. I can attest to this.) Zhou Jian randomly sprouted out a few words. He thought that Linda wouldn’t follow his reasoning, but he didn’t expect that Linda’s next sentence would make him almost wanted to hit the doorframe.
Linda said: “Shall I live with you?”