In America's family of firearms, Remington was a well-known brand and the Model 700 was from the golden age.
Remington, which was founded in 1816, had almost 200 years of history. It had gained its fame from the 700 series. Produced in 1962, the gun's precision and power had led to it becoming the weapon of choice for the military, law enforcement agencies, as well as civilians.
However, the design for this series of shotguns had not simply been plucked from the air. In fact, they were modeled after the perfectly-designed German Mauser 98 rifles from the late 19th century.
Now, this gun was very popular on the market, with many different models having been developed.
Li Du conducted a search online, and discovered a wealth of information about the Remington Model 700: ADL and BDL for civilians, DM and 40X, the M24 series for the military, the M40 series for the marine, as well as the Remington SR8, AT1-M24, Tac-OpsTango-51, Pro2000HTR, et cetera.
In addition, Remington also issued 700PSS, 700P and 700P-DM for the police. These were only some of the types; there were also other subtypes.
Li Du was not a gun enthusiast like Liu Jin Long. He could only tell that these guns were the civilian types, and was not sure about the actual model numbers.
What he did know was, regardless of the model number, these guns were worth a lot of money and could fetch at least 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.
Li Du had told Hans the information from Zhang Kai, so he also knew that this storage unit was worth a lot. Hence, with the intention to make a clean sweep, he looked imposing during the bidding.
The auctioneer shouted, "The starting bid is once again 100 dollars, 100 dollars, 100 dollars…"
Hans said, "500 dollars!"
This was the first time at the auction that the bidding had shown signs of soaring. The auctioneer was delighted and pointed at him. "Very good, now we have 500 dollars, 500 dollars, the price of 500 dollars. So what about 550 dollars…"
"Here, 550 dollars," a man with an unfamiliar accent nodded.
"Alright, there's 550 dollars. Then what about 600 dollars, 600 dollars, 600 dollars…"
"Me!"
The auctioneer continued to shout out the bids; Hans held up a finger, yelling, "1,000 dollars!"
Someone else was still interested, and said after some hesitation, "1,500 dollars!"
Li Du noticed that quite a few treasure hunters still seemed interested in this unit, and so stepped out. "We're offering 1,500 dollars. If there's anyone willing to pay more than that, you can have this unit!"
The treasure hunters glanced at each other and subsequently gave up competing for the unit.
To them, this storage unit was not worth that much. The things in it would not be able to fetch a high value. Besides, they had sensed from Li Du's words that he was trying to find people to put the blame on. Hence, they were not going to risk it.
It was the first time Li Du had spoken up in such a manner, and it had a powerful effect. In the end, they got the storage unit for 1,500 dollars.
After unit 54 was unit 61, which was filled with junk.
The storage unit's door opened and the treasure hunters started grumbling.
"What's this? D*mmit. Has the garbage dump come to the storage company?"
The little bug made one round inside, and Li Du perked up after seeing two items that looked like antique clocks.
The little bug took a closer look—they were not antique clocks, but were two antique-looking clock-shaped copper boxes.
The little bug took a look at one of the boxes' structure: there were a few small drawers and many springs. Its structure seemed rather complicated but it was not an antique—the nameplate on it stated that it was produced in 2001.
In addition, there was a description of these two copper boxes on the nameplate: these were antique-styled cash registers.
Li Di searched online, finding information on such cash registers. They became popular during the last century and many American shops used them for their cash transactions.
Modern cash registers relied on electricity to operate while old cash registers relied on winding to provide power. As with old-fashioned watches, they needed manual winding for power to be stored. When in use, the switch needed to be tapped so that the loaded spring could open the drawer.
If it were an actual antique cash register, then it would be valuable. But such imitation antiques would not be worth much; a new piece on Amazon would only cost about 1,500 dollars.
He nodded at Big Beard Carl. Carl understood that it was his time to put in a bid to get the unit.
After that was the fishing machine in storage unit number 68. Li Du released the little bug and waited with bated breath for a treasure-hunting opportunity.
Unfortunately, once the little bug had flown in, he knew it was going to be challenging. This fishing machine was huge and took up half of the storage unit. It was displayed in the open for all to see.
Indeed, as soon as the door to storage unit number 68 opened, the treasure hunters went wild:
"A fishing machine, this is a fishing machine! Sh*t, this is good stuff!"
"F*ck, it's Baier," a young man holding a pair of binoculars said excitedly. "Great, I'm gonna get it!"
"Buddy, how much money did you bring? Let's join forces and get this unit!"
Disappointed, Hans sighed, "D*mmit, there goes our chance."
Li Du patted his shoulder. "We've already gotten some gains, don't be too greedy."
He didn't care much about it, but the Flagstaff team was very interested in this fishing machine. Dickens, Turis and the rest gathered around Li Du and said, "We can combine efforts to get this unit, then split the profits."
Li Du said, "The profit would not be much—nobody's a fool here!"
"I know," Dickens said, "but as long as there's some... any little amount counts, even if it's just enough to cover our fuel costs."
Li Du knew why these people had approached him. Storage auctions were not just about buying, but also about selling via the right channels and connections.
The purchase of anything came with risk. If these things could not be sold and ended up broken or remained unsold for a while, it would stem the flow of funds and hamper one's ability to participate in other auctions.
The crowd surrounded him and Hans, wanting to tap on their means to sell this fishing machine. The number of channels and connections that a Hundred Thousand Club member had would be greater than theirs.
Feeling obligated, Li Du nodded his head. The price war started and Hans tossed a high price out there: "I offer 10,000 dollars, just add on to this price!"
This type of fishing machines were usually affixed to boats. They had complicated functions and included accessories such as comfortable lounge chairs, parasols, positions for fishing, tension sensors, reels, and so on.
Fishing was easy when there was a fishing machine. As long as one lied on it, and put the reel in position, whenever a fish was hooked, the machine would automatically reel it in.
Without a doubt, this fishing machine was brought by someone to Lake Powell. For some unknown reason, it had been left behind here.