"Next is the question of the price of our products. We sell our goods as complete sets. Please search on Baidu and you will find that our products are not sold one by one, but as a set."
These students were confused again. What was going on with the set?
"This set includes a pair of couplets for the main door, one for the inner door, two for the smaller doors, and a pair for the side door with a spring scroll for the outer door. There are also four large characters for "Fu" (blessings), five small characters for "Fu" (blessings), and five horizontal scrolls. Can you guess how much this set should cost?"
There was no one to answer quickly this time. Everyone looked at each other, but no one could guess the answer.
Jiang Jun, who had experience in business, said tentatively, "It should be sold for at least 25 or 26 cents. That gate is worth 10 cents."
Yes, the most eye-catching thing here is the gate couplet, which is 1.6 meters long and 25 centimeters wide. Those small couplets, which are more than 1 meter long and 10 centimeters wide, are several times larger.
"Now, let me reveal the answer. Our retail price for this set is 1.5 cents. It only costs you less than 5 cents to buy the red paper and have someone write the Chinese character for 'Fu'. Furthermore, the style, font, and color of our couplets are all unique to couplets you can't write yourself. Not just ordinary couplets, but even the flattery itself. Do you think we can't sell them?"
Selling couplets during the Chinese New Year is a very inconspicuous but extremely profitable project.
Wan Feng used to hang out in the market, it seemed like that was around 1995.
At that time, many people doing business in the market did not know what profit there was in selling couplets. It was not until one day that Wan Feng saw the people who collected management fees from the market collecting market taxes from those selling couplets that he realized how much money this industry could make.
When the management fee for ordinary stalls in the market was still one yuan and a half, the management fee for those stalls collecting and selling couplets was thirty yuan per market stall.
Wan Feng was shocked at the time. He was selling socks at the market at that time, two pairs for three yuan. He paid one yuan as management fee, and sometimes the fifty cents he would shamelessly pay was also from it.
He could only earn thirty or forty yuan from selling one hundred pairs of socks at a market, which was not even enough for those who sold couplets to pay the market tax.
How much money these couplet sellers make in a market became a question in Wan Feng's mind.
Therefore, at the end of October of the following year, he decisively went to the printing factory and placed an order of two thousand yuan. When selling couplets, you have to order in advance. You sell as many as you order, and there is no chance to replenish the stock later.
He had never sold it and didn't dare to bet more than two thousand yuan.
Because the printing factory prints according to orders, there is no extra stuff at all. Things like couplets are printed every year and sold out in a year. If they can't be sold this year, they will have to make money.
By the twelfth month of that year, his two thousand yuan had actually brought him a profit of more than ten thousand yuan. This was because he placed fewer orders, otherwise it would not be a problem for him to make twenty or thirty thousand yuan in one twelfth month.
That was in the 1990s!
A small palm-sized "Fu" character costing four or five cents was sold for one mao, and a pair of couplets costing one or two mao were sold for two or three yuan.
Especially for door couplets, a pair of 1.8-meter-long couplets with a cost of a few cents can be sold for five or six yuan. The profit of these products posted during the Chinese New Year is about ten to eight times.
So now Wan Feng has not even considered the problem of not being able to sell these things. He is only making twice the profit from selling these things now, so it would be strange if he couldn't sell them.
Jiang Jun, who had experience in business, was the first to express his support: "I think it will sell. Who doesn't want something new and beautiful for the New Year? And it's only a few cents more expensive, so it will definitely sell."
"Yes, if it were me, I would also buy such a couplet with the word "Fu". It looks festive with carp, gold ingots and cornucopia, and it's only a few cents more expensive." Someone else also expressed his opinion.
"Brother, how much can we earn if we sell it for 15 cents?"
Xu Bin was specially called by Wan Feng, and he asked the most crucial question.
"Now that we have the selling price, it's time to discuss the cost. I won't keep you in suspense, so as not to worry you. I'll tell you that the cost of this set is five cents."
Wan Feng raised the cost by four cents not to make a profit, but because he thought the price of 4.6 cents was too troublesome to calculate.
The room was silent.
The reason for this situation was that the price Wan Feng mentioned was far beyond their expectations, and they were a little unable to accept it for a while.
The price is not higher but lower.
"So many styles of things for only five cents?" Jiang Jun asked doubtfully.
"Yes, five cents, which means you can make ten cents for every set you sell. From now until the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, if you can sell forty sets, you can wear new clothes. If you sell sixty sets, you'll have some money to spend on whips. If you can sell a hundred sets, you can basically have a very prosperous new year."
Only then did Wan Feng's classmates believe that these couplets and blessing characters could indeed be sold, and they immediately became excited.
"Wan Feng, tell me what we should do?"
"Tomorrow is the Black Reef Market opening day. We should take this opportunity to test the waters. Although it's a bit early to sell these things on the third day of the Lunar New Year, it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to gain some experience. So, our task today is to pick out these couplets and blessing characters that are packed in boxes one by one according to the order I just mentioned. Let's pick up 560 sets first and see the market response tomorrow."
The best days to sell couplets are from around the 15th to the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month. It is indeed too early to sell these things on the third day of the Lunar New Year. Even if someone wants to buy them, they may not buy them. It is still a month away from the Chinese New Year. If you buy them so early, you will have to find a place to put them when you get home.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s not a bad thing to let these people who have never sold anything come to the market and get some exposure.
Everyone began to pick up the items one by one according to the standards set by Wan Feng. It was quite chaotic at first, but after an hour they formed a division of labor, some specialized in picking up couplets, some specialized in picking up blessing characters, and some specialized in sorting them out.
Every time you pick up a set, roll it up and tie it with a cloth strip, so that work efficiency is improved.
I can’t say there’s anything else here at Luan Feng’s place, but there are rags everywhere.
By around three in the afternoon, all 560 sets of couplets had been picked up.
"There are 28 people in our class, including Xu Bin, participating. Each of us will be given 20 of these 560 sets tomorrow. Whoever sells the set will give me the cost and keep the profit. Do you understand?"
"I understand!"
"From now on, the third will be the Black Lagoon Market, the fourth will be the Lonely Mountain Market, and the fifth will be the Green Mountain Market. You can go to the market during these days to sell."
"What about the days when there is no market?" someone asked.
"You can go to the village with three or four people and deliver it door to door. Don't look down on it. It might not sell for much at the market."
"How embarrassing!" someone said in embarrassment.
"What's the point of being embarrassed? Are you embarrassed that someone gives you money? You're just trying to make money but you're throwing your face away."
How can you get so many good things if you want to make money and save face at the same time?
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