Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian sighed silently.

Damn scalpers, why can't I kill them all!

That was utterly despicable!

Firstly, he hated the scalpers for emptying the inventory of the smart fitness drying rack so that gamers who really wanted to play could not buy it. Secondly, he hated the scalpers for rapidly depleting the inventory and causing Tengda to have a large sum of money for no reason…

Pei Qian thought for a long time and finally said helplessly, "Let's do it the way we did before. We'll stock up as much as we can. In short, we can't let the scalpers profit!"

Chang You nodded immediately. "Alright, Boss Pei. I'll make the arrangements now. However… the production of the smart fitness drying rack will take some time. It's inevitable that it would be out of stock for a week or two. Should we appease the players?"

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? We'll open a reservation on the website. We'll give a discount according to the time the players wait to order. Players won't buy from scalpers as long as they believe that they can buy it sooner than later."

"It's our fault for not being on guard against scalpers. There's nothing wrong with giving customers some compensation, right?"

Pei Qian's last sentence was obviously to test the attitude of the system.

Logically speaking, the price of the smart fitness drying rack was already relatively low. There was not much profit space to begin with. If he wanted to lower the price, he had to have a reason to convince the system.

Pei Qian could use the excuse of 'attacking scalpers and compensating customers' to give them a discount. Wouldn't that lower the profit margin?

It was a blessing in disguise.

…

After hanging up, Chang You immediately urged his subordinates to communicate with the factory and prepare the goods.

He had not expected that he would not be able to escape the fate of being a "monkey" even after leaving the cell phone department.

However, his subordinates came looking for him as soon as he finished his work.

"Boss Chang! Boss Chang, we've found the person who placed the two large orders. It's not a scalper!"

Chang You was stunned. "Oh? Not a scalper? Then who is it?"

He was a little surprised.

What was the meaning of buying 2,000 smart fitness drying racks if they were not scalpers?

The employee reported, "The two of them are Boss Yao of Jinding Technology and Boss Pei's second-generation rich friend, Xue Zhebin. Boss Yao said that they bought the smart fitness drying rack purely because they heard that Tengda's funds have been tight recently. That's why they helped."

"We did not have to assemble them. The Jinding Corporation has a sports clothing and sports drinks business. Therefore, they were preparing to organize a lucky draw event to randomly give them smart fitness drying racks as advertisements for their own company."

"What do you think?"

Chang You raised his eyebrows. "Oh? There's such a thing!"

"Good, of course!"

"I didn't expect Boss Pei's friend to lend a helping hand instead of a scalper!"

"Is this Boss Pei's charm?"

"You're beating around the bush because you're afraid that Boss Pei would reject you, right? How thoughtful."

The employee continued, "Those who buy dozens of units each have already been distributed. The probability of them being scalpers is very high."

"However, these orders basically came in after Boss Yao and Boss Xue's two large orders."

"Obviously, they saw that we have fewer smart fitness drying racks in our inventory and that the heat was higher. That's why he wanted to stock up."

Chang You nodded slightly. He had the same judgment.

Obviously, the scalper had not intended to stir-fry the smart fitness drying rack in the beginning. After all, this thing was huge and heavy. It took up a lot of space and had sufficient stock.

However, after Yao Bo and Xue Zhebin bought 4,000 units at once, the originally abundant inventory became tense. What's more, it created the illusion that the stock of the smart fitness drying racks was very tight.

Thus, many scalpers could not sit still!

After all, this was one of the few Tengda products that they could buy without restrictions. Since the inventory was so tight, these scalpers started to make their moves. They wanted to hoard some and sell it to earn money.

This further aggravated the lack of stock in the smart fitness drying rack, causing it to sell out in advance.

Chang You said, "The original plan remains the same. We have to make use of the time to prepare the goods."

"As for those scalpers… they shouldn't be able to do much more!"

…

At the same time, in a warehouse in Jingzhou, a few 'scalpers' were watching Upwind Logistics unload the goods.

"Just leave it here. There's no need to assemble it."

"Thank you for your hard work!"

They had to admit that Upwind Logistics was really fast in Jingzhou. No matter how late the order was, they could deliver it the next day.

Dozens of smart fitness drying racks were transported over and piled into the scalpers' warehouse.

The young man from Upwind Logistics had already determined the identities of these people. After all, they had bought so many pieces at once. They were not being unsealed nor installed. What else could they be other than scalpers?

However, the logistics delivery men did not say much. Their job was to deliver goods. As for how to restrict the scalpers, that was something the company leaders had to consider. There were no rules. They could only be treated as ordinary consumers.

The logistics delivery men left one after another after spending a lot of effort unloading all the smart fitness drying racks.

The scalpers looked at the smart fitness drying rack that was piled into a small mountain, as if they were looking at a mountain of gold.

As professional scalpers, their job was to buy out all sorts of products, including tickets and various digital products. Then, they would sell them for money.

They were the ones who stood at the entrance to collect tickets to sell during the concert.

However, this was the first time they had done something like this on such a big piece of item.

"Can this thing really make money? If we want to sell it, we will still have to pay the logistics fees and installation costs." One of the scalpers was obviously a little worried about this 'investment'.

The leader of the scalpers smiled. "Don't worry, I've seen it all. This thing definitely has the potential to become the best wealth management product of the year!"

"Look at how popular 'Fitness Battle' is. Many streamers are recommending it. What's more, the smart fitness drying rack is selling too well. They said that they had 10,000 units in stock. In the end, in just two or three hours, more than 4,000 units were sold!"

"Think about it, how big of a demand gap is this!"

"Even if Tengda were to prepare as many stocks as possible, would they be able to fill up such a huge gap? Definitely not!"

"What's more, the profit of this thing is not high. Its actual value is definitely above 5,000 yuan. Those who can afford it would definitely not mind raising the price by another 1,000 to 2,000 yuan. We don't have to say much about these dozens of units. Earning 1,000 every unit would still earn us tens of thousands!"

"If we ask for a higher price, we can earn more!"

"The most important thing is that Tengda was negligent this time. They thought that 10,000 units would be enough, so they did not limit their purchase. We did not have the chance to hype Tengda's cell phones in the past. Won't we be able to make a huge profit now that there is such an opportunity?"

Another scalper swiped his cell phone and smiled. "Those who didn't manage to buy the smart fitness drying rack online are scolding us again."

The leader of the scalpers laughed. "They deserved it, didn't they? Previously, no one wanted the smart fitness drying rack. They bought it as they pleased, but they did not buy it. Now that it's popular, they can't buy it anymore. Can you blame us?"

The scalpers laughed. Obviously, they were indifferent to the criticism online.

However, at that moment, the scalper's expression changed. "What… what's going on?!"

"Brother, look! Something's wrong!"

The leader of the scalpers was stunned. He took the cell phone and realized that it was an announcement that Otto Technologies had just released.

The smart fitness drying rack started to make reservations. The maximum discount was 200 yuan according to the date of the reservation and the actual date of arrival!

Chang You had mentioned this 200 yuan at the news conference. That was because the profits of the smart fitness drying rack were relatively low. Thus, lowering the price by 200 yuan was the limit. It would not be lower.

The opening of this reservation meant that gamers had no reason to increase the price through other channels. They only had to make reservations on the official website and wait for the goods to arrive.

The longer they waited, the cheaper it would be. Who would still buy from the scalpers at higher prices?

The leader of the scalper's expression changed drastically.

Tengda's new policy was released today even though they just made their move yesterday?

That was too fast!

However, he quickly calmed down. "It's alright, it's not a big problem. 200 yuan is not a lot of preferential treatment. What's more, at Tengda's speed, even if they do their best to stock up, the next batch of products would definitely be in a week or two."

"What's more, when the next batch of products comes out, there will definitely be people who can't buy them."

"Let's hurry up and sell all of these in two weeks. We can still make a small profit!"

"With the current market demand, it would not be a problem to take these few dozen sets. We would not lose anything!"

However, before he could finish speaking, the scalper by the side exclaimed again.

"Brother, look at this!"

The leader of the scalpers took his cell phone and saw that it was an event announcement from the Jinding Corporation.

This time, he could not remain calm.

"From now on, you would have the chance of winning the smart fitness drying rack by buying fitness drinks or sportswear from the Jinding Corporation?!"

"There are 500 of them!"

"If you spend a total of 8,000 yuan, you will be given one smart fitness drying rack. There are 1,000 of them!"

"You can also buy a fitness gift package, a box of drinks, a set of personal sportswear, and a smart fitness drying rack. The price… is 5,199 yuan?!"

"2,500 units? First come first serve?!"

All the scalpers froze on the spot.

The Jinding Corporation was equivalent to providing three solutions. Godd*mn lucky winners would have a chance to win if they bought drinks or sportswear. Ballers would be gifted with them if they were to spend a total of 8,000 yuan.

If they were not lucky nor would they bear to spend 8,000 yuan, there was still one last way: spend 5,199 yuan to buy it.

The original price of the smart fitness drying rack was 4,999 yuan. However, the Jinding Corporation had sent a huge fitness gift bag with a box of drinks and a set of sportswear. According to the original price, it was far more than 200 yuan.

The most important thing was that all of these quotas added up to 4,000 units of smart fitness drying racks!

These 4,000 units of drying racks were enough to last a week or two.

By then, Tengda's next batch of goods would have arrived.

Who would be stupid enough to buy a smart fitness drying rack from a scalper with Tengda's official reservation and Jinding Corporation's event?

They must have messed up!

Even if these scalpers could sell at 5,199 yuan, they would still incur losses because they had to bear the costs of logistics and storage. What's more, it was impossible to sell at 5,199 yuan!

If they lost two to three hundred yuan each, they would lose at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan on these dozens of units!

They had already confirmed that they were going to incur losses within a few minutes after they had received the goods. The goods were still hot in their seats!

The scalpers looked at each other, their faces ashen.

Tengda's wool could not be pulled off!!