The so-called "the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the collection is prosperous".
There is no doubt that 1978 was also the year when the collecting craze began.
Anyone who has done a little research on collecting knows that the first type of collection that became popular across the country was not antiques, calligraphy and paintings, ancient books or jade, but stamps.
Philately has a history of hundreds of years in the capital, and the capital is also the birthplace of my country's stamps. Since the customs trial postal service issued the first set of "Dalong stamps" in the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), to this day, the capital has actually been It is the mainstream market for stamp trading in my country.
Even during the "movement", many commemorative stamps and special stamps issued in the past were considered to be "sealed, endowed, and repaired goods" and stopped being sold. Stamp collecting was regarded as an "activity of bourgeois taste" and was criticized. Even
The official philatelic business was forced to cease on February 3, 1969. There are still many private collectors active in the capital.
The private exchange and purchase of each other's collections by these people has never been interrupted, but has been carried out underground in a more secretive manner. Therefore, as soon as the "movement" ended, the private stamp trade in the capital was the first to recover, like a resurgence. Even very soon
It soon set off a long wave of hype.
So when we talk about this, we have to mention a "holy place" in the minds of philatelists in the capital. This is the National Philatelic Company established in January 1955 by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications at No. 77 Donghua Gate in the east wing of the Forbidden City.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, this place has been the most frequent place for private transactions by private collectors. After being closed for a time during the "movement", it reopened in 1972.
Of course, after the re-opening, this place was only open to foreigners, and its business scope was mainly the wholesale export of stamps. The only stamps available for sale at that time were "50th Anniversary of the Founding of the Red Party", "Model Opera" and "Movement"
"The 21st and 63rd sets of stamps issued before.
But at least, Chinese people can finally walk into philatelic companies and watch them selling tickets. This means that stamp collecting is once again an activity that can only be seen half-visited.
As a result, the inside and outside of this elegant small building once again became a place where philatelic enthusiasts from all walks of life gathered together to conduct private exchanges and transactions in a semi-public manner.
At nine o'clock in the morning on March 3, 1978, Hong Yanwu and Chen Liquan came here for the fourth time. They brought five thousand yuan with them, and their main purpose was to find the "Mei Lanfang Stage Art" souvenir sheet.
Anyone with a little knowledge of philately should know that this "Drunken Concubine" with a face value of three yuan is a high-end "power stamp" that is highly sought after by philatelic enthusiasts. The price has been rising since the beginning of its issuance. Today's stamp price
It has become the value benchmark of postal souvenir sheets. The price has successfully reached six figures, which is more than 30,000 times higher than the face value of three yuan.
However, Hong Yanwu did not come to it because he knew about its value-added potential. Nor did he want to reach out to the postal market and develop an additional "scalper business." The main reason was because of the "rehabilitation" of Chang Xianzhang's father. I hope
It's all about this special ticket.
While Daqing was developing the "movie ticket market", Hong Yanwu did not forget to continue to go to He Jiefu's house to engage in "public relations".
Not only during the Lantern Festival, he specially sent five kilograms of Lantern Festival, but every Sunday, he also bought some hot commodities and visited the house to show his goodwill.
But the effect is not ideal, because He Jiefu is not at home most of the time, and his wife is very tight-knit. The old lady always refuses to accept the gift. Even if he is pestering her to no avail, at least she must insist on buying it at the original price.
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Therefore, Hong Yanwu is just a familiar person at best, but might be quite annoying to others.
It was entirely by chance that he found the loophole.
Last Sunday, the water pipe in the He family's toilet burst. He happened to visit the house again at that time, and ended up serving as an emergency volunteer plumber.
Fortunately, it was just a small matter of replacing the valve, which was not too difficult. He was able to stop the flooding of He's house in time and successfully.
As a result, He Jiefu's wife was naturally grateful and treated him to a cup of tea. So he asked about He Jiefu's daily life and hobbies through chatting.
In this regard, He Jiefu's wife is not that vigilant. After a few words of conversation, he revealed that He Jiefu likes to collect stamps.
According to the old lady, He Jiefu began to accumulate these small pieces of paper on envelopes as early as the "Great Leap Forward" period, and he did not stop even during the "movement". Moreover, he was always very busy at work, so as time went by,
This is the only hobby that takes up little time and can still be maintained.
But Mrs. He also complained about this, saying that He Jiefu was becoming more and more obsessed with this thing. He had already bought four or five stamp albums, and the money he had spent on stamps over the years was overwhelming.
At the beginning of this year, I was so confused that I almost spent 175 yuan to buy a "Mei Shifang" with a face value of only 3 yuan. Fortunately, I regretted it in the end, so I didn't suffer this loss.
Unexpectedly, even after a long time, He Jiefu is still sighing about this. It must be that he did not know what happened and missed it. In the future, he will definitely try his best to find one, even if he spends more money to buy it.
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From her point of view, this was clearly a waste of money. She really couldn't understand why her wife could be so stupid, knowing clearly that it was only worth three yuan, but she still had to pay such a high price to buy it...
The words of the minister's wife were completely nagging like a housewife. But Hong Yanwu's eyes lit up and he grasped the key point.
Needless to say, gift-giving must be of course suitable for the recipient, and the more rare the thing is and the more people will remember it, the better the effect will be.
He firmly believed that if he could get the "Drunken Concubine" that He Jiefu had been dreaming about, He Jiefu would no longer be able to refuse his "good intention".
Even if we can get a few more rare stamps, we can fix the problem of Chang Xianzhang's father and He Jiefu.
So since he discovered this opportunity, he began to visit the National Philatelic Company in Donghua Gate. He wanted to "hunt" for the "Drunken Concubine" that could break through the defense line of human relations.
It's just that this matter is not that easy to handle. There is a situation that Hong Yanwu did not expect.
In this era, the collectors gathered here are all middle-aged and elderly people with high cultural quality and living standards. Their love for stamps is more based on cultural needs.
Only hoarding without selling is the mainstream, and those who hoard to support hoarding are only a minority. Even those who have no knowledge and only wealth often encounter scorn in this circle.
So even though he has a good amount of money, after asking around, many collectors do have the objects he is looking for. However, his professionalism, which only knows a few well-known and valuable stamps, is not known by many collectors.
welcome.
Moreover, most people only have one in their hands, and they all regard it as their darling. No one wants to part with it because they are greedy for money. It is really difficult to find a willing seller for a while. And the only thing he can do is to buy as many as possible.
This time, I put my hope in the chance of luck.
Of course, just because this thing couldn't be done, it didn't mean that he came here in vain.
Fortunately, old stamps such as "Dalong Tickets", "Four Treasures of China Post" and "Five Treasures of the Republic of China" are equally valuable, but due to their simple patterns and clear "feudal reactionary" attributes, they have not yet been used in this era.
It has received enough attention and love from stamp collectors, but is far less popular than the "Old Jite" stamps (Old Jite stamps refer to the commemorative stamps and special stamps issued from the founding of New China to the "Movement" period when the "Movement" stamps were issued.
A general term for stamps). There are even some collectors who are a little afraid to keep them in their hands, and many people are willing to transfer the extra ones at a high price.
Therefore, during this period, these stamps from before the founding of the People's Republic of China were actually the most cost-effective.
Of course, Hong Yanwu, who knows the goods, will not miss a good opportunity. Every time he comes, he hunts rabbits and buys these tickets at high prices. He has already bought dozens of them. He must have finally found a better place for the funds in his hand.
Don't forget, he still has hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash at home, which gives him a headache. After all these days, he and Chen Liquan have been looking for banks to save money when they have time, but they can only deposit 20,000 to 30,000 dollars. Not to mention that there will be "more" in the future.
There is a steady stream of income from movie tickets.
Needless to say, things have turned around and I will come to my house tomorrow. When I come back this time, Hong Yanwu feels that his luck is obviously much better than the first few times.
During this period, the unspoken rule of communication among philatelists was that they should bring two "mobile" stamp albums when they came to a philatelic company. One contained stamps that showed appreciation level, and the other contained stamps that could be exchanged or transferred with others.
Hong Yanwu and Chen Liquan struck up a conversation at the entrance of the philatelic company as usual, and read through more than a dozen stamp albums brought by philatelists from all walks of life.
Not long after, he saw several "Big Dragon Tickets" in good condition, and then found a "Red Print" Sifanglian. Naturally, he would not let it go, and he bought them all after negotiating the price.
But then, the real good luck came!
He unexpectedly found a double copy of "The Country's Mountains and Rivers Are Red" in the "transferred" stamp album brought by an old man wearing glasses.
It was quite unusual for someone to be willing to sell this treasure. So even though the old man offered a price as high as 1,500 yuan and refused to lower the price, he agreed. Then he read the following content with increasing interest.
Sure enough, he soon discovered a characteristic. There were neither "old stamps" nor "sports" stamps from before the founding of the People's Republic of China in the old man's stamp album. They were almost all "Old Jite" stamps, and "
There are a lot of hard goods.
With his newly acquired knowledge of stamps, he discovered one after another the "Fifteenth Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" souvenir sheet, the "Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Red Cross Society of China" stamps that many people are eagerly seeking on the market, and there are only one or two more stamps missing.
He was able to collect a complete set of "Huangshan", "Goldfish" and some military stamps. It can be seen that the old man should be a special philatelist who specializes in collecting "Old Jite" stamps.
He suddenly became hopeful and continued to read. Unexpectedly, the biggest surprise was at the back.
On the last page of the old man's stamp album, he really saw the blue and noble "Drunken Concubine" that made him look for it for many days.