Chapter 26: Error Stamps, Millennial Edition
Translator: Vicky_ Editor: Vicky_
After Hans's comment, the crowd outside all wore furious looks. One of them angrily said, "Matt, don't block me, I'm going to beat this son of a b*tch up!"
On the other hand, Hans didn't seem to care at all about their threats, and instead carefully placed the stamps in a new book before shouting, "I'm telling you the truth. Do you know what I actually have here? You probably won't even have thought of it in your wildest dreams!"
Not even Li Du knew what those stamps were, so he questioned, "Where are these stamps from?"
As Hans dodged Ah Meow's claws, he excitedly explained, "These stamps were issued in 2000 for the millennial celebration. More specifically, the sports addition."
At this, the guy outside only let out a cold smirk. "Ha! Is that the treasure that you think you've got? It's only the millennial remembrance stamps, who knows how many were…. Oh sh*t!"
He suddenly stopped and let out a look of shock as if he suddenly remembered something.
"You remembered, didn't you buddy?" laughed Hans. "At least your memory is still quite good. Li, what does this stamp say?"
As he looked at the picture of Ali, Li Du read the printed words, "Joe Montana, quarterback of…"
"And this one," Hans said and showed him another one, this time of a football athlete.
"Michael Jordan, the god of basketball, who wore jersey number 23... that doesn't seem quite right."
"And this one?" Hans pointed to a stamp showing Jordan dunking a basketball.
"Muhammad Ali, the eternal god of boxing…" As Li Du read the words, he realized what was wrong. "The name and description here don't seem to match that of the picture."
"That's right! Buddy, this is the error edition of the millennium sports stamps!" shouted Hans.
"That's impossible, you can't have such good luck," exclaimed someone in the crowd.
"Unlike you worthless pig, we are God's most devoted followers, what do you know?!" laughed Hans.
Meanwhile, others seemed to descend into denial and self-comfort.
"These two are trying to put up an act; I bet they won't show us so we can see if they are telling the truth or not."
At this, Hans shot a photo before handing it over to the other hunters. Seeing this, no one said anything else.
"Today, everything is thanks to Ah Meow!" Li Du smiled as he picked the ocelot up.
"That's right—if Jordan can be considered the god of basketball, then Ah Meow is the god of treasure hunting!" Hans excitedly replied.
With that, he immediately picked Ah Meow up and kissed it on the head. However, Ah Meow didn't seem to enjoy this, and immediately retaliated with a swipe of its claws.
"Are these stamps worth much?" asked Li Du.
"Of course!"
There wasn't much stuff this time; only the two book cases and a bunch of books, so they soon cleared the storage unit out.
As they prepared to leave, many others came over and asked, "Is it true? That a cat found a group of error stamps of the millennial sports edition from a dollar unit?"
Giving the buffy black guy who won unit 75 the middle finger, Hans replied, "We bought six error stamps for only a dollar. What did you get for 3,000 dollars?"
The buffy black guy immediately threw a cup in their direction and cursed, "I really hope that you guys die from a car accident on the way back!"
"How much can we sell them for?" asked Li Du on the way back.
With this question, Hans's excited attitude returned. "Around two years ago, Los Angeles hosted a Christie's auction, and when a full set of this appeared it was sold for over 20,000 dollars!"
"Twenty thousand? F*ck my life!" Li Du couldn't help but curse. This really was a very large sum.
"Don't get too excited—they were selling an entire set of around 25 pieces. We only have six, so we won't be able to get that kind of price. However, the price won't be too bad."
In the world of collection, there were a lot of Americans who enjoyed stamp collection as a hobby.
In this field where the rarer an item was, the more priceless it became. The collector value for an error stamp was, without a doubt, one of the most precious, despite its defective nature.
When Li Du searched online, he found that there were a lot of stamps in that edition that had been sold, numbering in the millions.
However, the number of error stamps that were sold was less than a hundred. When those stamps were placed on the shelves, their mistakes were immediately spotted and the postal service had them recalled and destroyed.
When they returned to Flagstaff, Hans directly went to the downtown area. That was the area where Flagstaff's wealthy people lived. If the houses there were not mansions, then they were high-end condos. Even the trees on the side of the streets gave off a noble presence.
The buyer that Hans contacted on the road was a guy called Russel Lynch.
From this, one could tell the great use of the Association, as the contact information of those kind of potential buyers were categorized on its database.
By the time they arrived in Flagstaff, the day had already darkened. Russel Lynch had also gotten off work at that time and was waiting for them.
They agreed to meet at a restaurant that Hans chose, the Golden Aquitaine, Flagstaff's most high-end restaurant.
Russel Lynch was a middle-aged man with a pair of frameless glasses, blond hair, green eyes, a well-maintained body, and a very strong voice. "Hello. Mr. Hans? Mr. Li?"
"Yes, that's us. Hello to you as well, Russel. Please sit, there's no need to stand up," Hans causally said, trying to bring the two of them closer.
"You said on the phone that you had a couple of stamps that you wanted me to examine," Lynch lightly smiled.
At this, Hans quickly showed him the booklet with the stamps. Lynch brought out some tools and began to closely examine them under a magnifying glass and ultra-violet rays of light.
He remained emotionless during the process, but after finishing his work, his let out a light smile. "Very nice items. They are all authentic error stamps of the millennium sports edition."
"There's not a doubt that they are authentic. We are from the Association. Here's my ID."
The power of the Association once again showed its value. Lynch put away his tools and said, "Of course, I fully trust your association."
"Can you teach us what you looked for in these collections? I'm not too familiar with this, so I might have missed some great stuff," Hans said.
"Of course, I would love to," Lynch said. "How about we order something and talk as we eat?"
"That's absolutely awesome," Li Du said with a look of hunger.