The Vase Worth Thirty Billion
He scrolled down with the mouse wheel.
Then his finger stopped on one spot.
A small thumbnail sat in the corner of the screen.
Light seemed to be pouring out of it.
And there, in the image, was a single piece of porcelain.
At first glance, its colors and patterns were almost offensively extravagant.
[Name: Qing Dynasty Qianlong Nine-Dragon Large Vase]
[Made in the imperial kiln of Jingdezhen for court use in the 16th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1751).]
[Feature: A quintessential example of famille rose technique, the pinnacle of porcelain artistry in the Qianlong era. Fine cracks have formed naturally across the glaze over the passage of time, but rather than detracting from it, they add an aesthetic value unique to old masterpieces, proving the vessel’s very breath.]
[The nine dragons symbolize imperial authority, and the eyes and scales of the dragons retain a luster so vivid it is hard to believe the coloring was applied nearly 300 years ago.]
[The central underside bears the seal inscription “Made in the Qianlong Era of the Great Qing” in seal script.]
[Estimated value: at least 30 billion won]
A translucent window appeared before his eyes.
He looked at the status window and lost his voice.
Thirty billion.
He drew a deep breath.
Calm down.
It would be late enough to shake once he had won the auction.
He opened the listing.
[Title: Old Chinese-Style Large Vase]
- Seller: M***L_03
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Item description: Selling a porcelain piece that had been stored in the warehouse for a long time ahead of a move. It used to be used as an umbrella stand before I put it in storage. It was too ornate to fit with simple interior decor. It has some cracks. Please refer to the photos for its condition. (5 photos)
- Starting bid: $100
- Current bid: $350
- Buy It Now: None.
- Time remaining: 3 hours 10 minutes
Unfortunately, there was no Buy It Now price.
Come to think of it, maybe that was for the best?
If someone had already recognized its value, they might have snapped up the vase instantly.
Beneath the listing, the Seller Q&A section held a few questions and answers.
- F**xk: How old is this item?
- Seller: Um... I heard my grandmother received it as a gift from an acquaintance a long time ago. By then, it must have been over fifty years old.
- M**n_12: How tall is it?
- Seller: About 24 inches, or 60 centimeters. It’s pretty large.
- Go*d_ha**y: Can it be packed safely for shipping?
- Seller: Of course. I’ll wrap it in several layers of bubble wrap and send it safely :)
It had only reached $350 so far.
Apparently it hadn’t drawn much attention, since there were hardly any questions.
It seemed like only a few curious people had placed bids.
But it was too early to relax.
There might be someone who found it late, or someone waiting to bid at the last moment.
The so-called bid sniping technique.
It was a strategy of waiting until the final seconds of an auction, like a sniper lining up a shot.
He decided to test the waters first.
He clicked the bid button.
- Enter bid amount: ______ dollars
He typed the numbers on the keypad.
The instant bid updated.
[Highest bid: $400 (siuu**123)]
But the moment he raised it, someone outbid him as though they had been waiting for it.
Ding.
[Highest bid: $450 (Jam*s_C**way)]
What the hell?
The new bidder appeared with an instant alert.
Siu’s eyebrows twitched faintly.
That meant someone had either set up an automatic bidding system or was monitoring it in real time.
He’d need to check.
He raised the bid to $500 right away.
[Highest bid: $500 (siuu**123)]
After bidding, he timed the response.
Ten seconds... twenty seconds... thirty seconds...
[Highest bid: $600 (Jam*s_C**way)]
The bidder had changed.
This time, the response was slower than before.
So it wasn’t automatic bidding.
There was a high chance someone was watching it live.
There was a rival.
Then he absolutely had to buy it.
This time he put in $700.
Five minutes later.
The same bidder appeared again.
[Highest bid: $800 (Jam*s_C**way)]
Bay Ridge, a quiet residential neighborhood in southern Brooklyn, New York.
Even in the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep, the lights in James Coloway’s room were still on.
He stared at the monitor with bloodshot eyes.
Having spent years in the antique trade, James knew his way around all kinds of old objects.
Going through newly listed items online every day had become part of his routine.
Then, three days ago, while browsing eBay as usual, something unusual had caught his radar.
An old Chinese-style large vase.
The title was ordinary enough, but the moment he saw the photos, he stopped breathing.
The vase’s lavish design.
The placement of the nine dragons and the shape of their claws.
The coloring in the glaze.
Even the faint Chinese characters visible on the bottom.
He captured the image of the characters and ran a restoration program on it.
The letters became sharper.
Still, they were hard to read.
After running an AI program, he finally understood.
Made in the Qianlong Era of the Great Qing.
James had seen plenty of items in his life.
But this was the first one that looked so close to a genuine artifact.
He compared it with other porcelain pieces from the Qianlong period.
This is likely authentic. It could be worth at least five million dollars. It’s the kind of thing that changes your life! I know it!
For three days, James had gone without sleep, staring at the monitor and waiting for the auction to near its end.
He didn’t want to raise the price unnecessarily.
That wouldn’t just inflate the bid; it might also draw someone else’s attention.
The highest bid had remained at just $350 for days.
But with three hours left, someone finally appeared.
Ding!
[Highest bid: $400 (siuu**123)]
What is this bastard doing?
James couldn’t hold back and slammed his fist into the desk.
Should I hold off for now?
He could always win it at the end with a sniper bid.
But if the other side knew what was happening, they might adjust the price at the last second.
He had to consider the possibility of a back-and-forth bidding war.
He placed a $450 bid.
He wanted to see what the other side was after.
The moment he bid, the other bidder followed immediately.
A sense of unease crept over him, the fear that he might lose in the final bidding battle.
He changed tactics.
$500. $600. $800.
The price kept climbing.
Damn it! This guy knows the real value too!
James panted, unable to keep his anger in check.
[Highest bid: $10,000 (Jam*s_C**way)]
This time he made a huge jump all at once.
It was meant to apply pressure.
But the other side, as if mocking him, immediately raised it to $12,000.
James clenched his jaw.
What the hell is this bastard?
His temper flared.
He had been watching quietly for three days, unable even to sleep, waiting for the right moment.
And then this guy had suddenly shown up and ruined everything.
Every time James raised the amount, the other bidder followed.
James forced himself to calm down for a moment and started making calls.
There was no telling how high this would go.
He needed firepower.
He planned to borrow money from anywhere he could.
But it was the middle of the night in New York.
Most people either wouldn’t pick up or would hang up after cursing at him.
It wasn’t a good time to be asking for money.
Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!
James went down to the Q&A section and, unable to restrain his fury, left a message.
What the hell?
Siu couldn’t believe his eyes.
When he looked at the new post in the Q&A section, it was that kind of garbage.
That section was for questions about the item, not for bidders to start fighting with each other.
The fact that he had come out so desperately meant the other party was rattled.
If he were truly at ease, there would be no reason to leave a post like that.
Should I poke him a little?
Short and to the point.
Now there were only about ten minutes left.
He hadn’t expected three hours to pass this quickly.
[Highest bid: $50,000 (siuu**123)]
The screen remained motionless for several minutes.
Only five minutes were left now.
Was he planning to raise the amount at the very end?
Then the price would need to be adjusted.
How much is this guy planning to spend?
Another post appeared in the seller Q&A section.
A barking dog is nothing to fear.
What’s truly scary is the dog that goes silent and waits to bite.
That thought made him feel much lighter.
All right, he’d made up his mind.
Three hundred million won.
The final amount he would change it to.
He had already worked everything out with the credit card company.
How much, exactly, would that man be willing to spend?
A dorm near the Berkeley campus in San Francisco.
Late in the night.
Jessica, Mei Lin’s roommate, covered her ears and shouted.
"Oh! Mei! Please turn off that damn alarm already! It keeps going off!"
Jessica’s sharp voice cut through the dark.
Mei Lin was fast asleep.
She had worked on assignments at the library until late again today, then showered and fallen into a dead sleep.
Her smartphone was ringing like crazy on the nightstand beside the bed.
"Mmnh..."
Still half-dreaming, Mei reached out a hand.
Without even opening her eyes properly, she picked up the phone.
The screen was packed with notifications.
[Highest bid has been updated]
[Highest bid has been updated]
[Highest bid has been updated]
...
"...What is this?"
Rubbing her eyes, Mei stared at the screen.
It was an eBay alert.
Could it be that umbrella stand?
The old porcelain piece her grandmother had received as a gift and she had posted a few days ago.
She’d listed it at a starting bid of $100 to help with her parents’ moving expenses.
As a child, she remembered tossing wet umbrellas into it on rainy days.
Who’s bidding this much?
Without thinking too hard, Mei yawned and opened the eBay app.
And then.
"......!"
Mei Lin’s eyes widened.
On the screen, the number appeared.
[Current Bid: $50,000]
"Fifty thousand dollars...?"
Mei was suddenly wide awake.
She thought she must have misread it as $5,000 and checked again.
"Mei? Are you okay?"
Jessica got out of bed and came over.
But Mei couldn’t answer.
She could only stare blankly at her phone.
"Mei! Snap out of it. What on earth happened...?"
Jessica shook Mei by the shoulder.
Mei slowly handed the phone to Jessica, her mouth hanging open.
Jessica looked at the screen.
"F, fifty thousand dollars?"
Mei checked the bidding history.
Jam*s_C**way and siuu**123.
The two of them were waging war over the vase.
The record showed countless rounds of the two bidders driving the price up against each other.
"This doesn’t make any sense."
The old porcelain she had used as an umbrella stand.
The dust-covered object buried in storage...
It was selling for $50,000 now.
Jessica said urgently, "Something’s wrong with this. It could be a scam, you know."
Mei thought the same thing.
Her finger moved to the bottom of the screen.
She found the “cancel auction” button and pressed it.
But then.
[Notice: This auction currently has active bidders, and as less than one hour remains until the end, cancellation is not permitted under the rules.]
The bidding still wasn’t over.
Time remaining: 1 minute.
[Current Bid: $50,000]
[Time Remaining: 1 minute]
Mei stared anxiously at the screen.
The time kept ticking down.
Sixty seconds... twenty seconds, ten seconds.
[Time Remaining: 10 seconds]
"Looks like it’s over now."
At Jessica’s words, Mei nodded.
I was trying to cover moving expenses, and now this huge sum is coming in... I need to tell my parents right away.
[Time Remaining: 10 seconds]
Mei held her breath and watched the screen.
Ten seconds remained.
The auction would be over soon.
And then.
Ding!
[Highest bid has been updated]
"It went up again!!"
Mei and Jessica screamed at the same time.
The screen changed, revealing the new number.
[Current Bid: $210,000 (Jam*s_C**way)]
Mei’s jaw dropped.
Jessica froze as well.
"Two hundred ten thousand dollars...?"
"This doesn’t make any sense."
Just then.
Another alert rang out.
Ding!
[Highest bid has been updated]
Startled, Mei dropped her phone.
Jessica caught it quickly.
They checked the bidder.
At the same time, a new alert appeared.
[Auction has ended]
[Winning bid: $230,000]
[Highest bid: $230,000 (siuu**123)]
In the end, James had bid every cent he had.
But the result was Siu’s victory by a margin of $20,000.