Standing on a treasure trove, Fang Bai was extremely happy.
Next, he continued to observe for half an hour.
He found that as long as he picked well, it was not a problem to assemble one finished product from two old televisions on average.
In other words, it was best if he could pick those with good screens and casings, and only minor internal issues or those that could be fixed by replacing a component.
It could be said that there was great potential!
Deciding to act immediately, Fang Bai asked the on-site staff for specific details, then left the premises to find a truck first.
In those days, there were no private trucks; goods had to be transported by state-owned trucking companies.
T City had a port, and its transportation industry was well-developed, so Fang Bai took a pedicab and, led by the driver, quickly found a state-owned trucking company.
He needed a 9.6-meter box truck, which could hold about 50 cubic meters and carry a maximum load of 17 tons.
He negotiated transportation with the relevant person in charge, and ultimately, Fang Bai settled on a transportation price of five hundred yuan.
This price was very expensive for that era; Fang Bai haggled, but they wouldn't budge on the fee, acting as if they didn't care whether he hired them or not, and their service attitude was truly not good.
There was nothing he could do; they had iron rice bowl jobs, and how much they earned didn't really concern them.
The trucking company's quoting staff said that running over a hundred kilometers cost not much less than running two or three hundred kilometers; the fuel cost wasn't much, but the truck price wasn't low, and loading and unloading wasted time. Four hundred yuan was the daily charter price, and one hundred yuan was for round-trip fuel and other expenses, with only forty yuan more in fuel costs for an extra hundred kilometers.
This differed somewhat from how fees were calculated by mileage in later generations and sounded a bit unreasonable.
Fang Bai thought about it and understood; now, they dispatched one truck every few days, whereas in later generations, they dispatched several trucks a day.
Moreover, due to a lack of information, the situations were different, and the charging standards varied greatly by region.
Fang Bai was very helpless and could only agree to pay.
After waiting a while, he and the driver drove to a nearby hiring ground for porters.
In those days, there were few drivers who could operate trucks, so truck drivers' salaries were extremely high.
Fang Bai was very polite to the driver and first gave him a pack of cigarettes to ensure the driver would work diligently.
Upon reaching the destination, Fang Bai began to look for porters.
"Moving televisions at Yaming Company this afternoon, half a day's work, five yuan per person. Those interested, sign up quickly, we need 4 people."
Fang Bai shouted to find people; the wages he offered were not low.
Loading and unloading were not within the driver's job scope, and Fang Bai didn't expect the driver to help; besides, the driver wouldn't care for the 5 yuan income from half a day's porter work.
Moreover, he felt that the job of a porter had no status.
In later generations, as long as there was extra money, drivers would still move goods.
Or, if there were few goods, some drivers would even be willing to help move goods for free, just wanting to finish unloading quickly to pick up more goods and earn more money.
Life was not easy; it was nothing like how comfortable state-owned drivers lived now.
"I'll do it, Boss!"
"Boss, pick me, I'll do it too!"
As soon as Fang Bai stopped shouting, people ran towards him to sign up.
Time was a bit tight, and he was in a hurry; otherwise, people would work for two or three yuan for half a day, as many porters came from the countryside to do odd jobs.
Fang Bai selected 4 young men and had them get in the truck to go to the factory together.
At 3 PM, Fang Bai returned to the electronics warehouse of Yaming Electronic Recycling Company and began to select goods.
On the flat ground, televisions were stacked two or three layers high; some televisions were in boxes and had never been opened. The staff said he could only select whole units, not disassemble them to pick only components.
Fang Bai had no objection to this; their requirement was reasonable, or how else would they make money?
"Move this one, take the accompanying cables and controller with it, and put them in the empty space."
"Move this one too, be careful not to damage the screen."
Fang Bai was very quick at selecting goods; whenever he picked one, the porters beside him would move the television he had chosen to an empty space first.
He tried to select those with good picture tubes and screens; for him, as long as the circuit board could be repaired, it was not a problem.
An hour later, he had already selected over a hundred televisions, mainly 21-inch color TVs, and he wouldn't miss any repairable 29-inch color TVs he encountered.
However, 29-inch color TVs were relatively rare.
Fang Bai had calculated that 15-20 21-inch color TVs could fit in one cubic meter, and a 9.6-meter box truck could theoretically stack up to a thousand 21-inch color TVs.
[The approximate external dimensions of a 21-inch old color TV are about 50-60 cm in width, 35-40 cm in height, and 30-40 cm in depth.]
In reality, stacking half of that would be enough, and Fang Bai didn't have that much money; he could only use ten thousand yuan to purchase televisions, needing to retain some funds for operations.
It was indeed easier to get bank loans in those days; collateral wasn't even necessary, but one needed connections or an introduction from an acquaintance.
If there was no background or connections, it would be easier to get a loan after acquiring one's own fixed assets.
Coming back to the point, Fang Bai would first choose color TVs, but he would also pick good quality black and white televisions, as relatively few families could afford to spend nearly a thousand yuan on a TV, whereas most families could afford inexpensive black and white televisions.
Furthermore, his funds were limited, and given the situation of the color TVs on site, he needed to carefully allocate the proportion of color TVs and black and white televisions.
As it approached 6 PM, the staff urged him: "Boss, you need to hurry; we'll be off work when it gets dark. You can continue picking tomorrow if you want."
"Okay, we'll weigh them immediately."
Fang Bai didn't want to stay overnight there, and besides, he had already booked the truck and set the time.
He felt it was about enough and began to weigh and record the weight; after weighing, the televisions were moved onto the truck.
The televisions Fang Bai selected were whole units, and televisions of the same specifications and brand had the same weight. The number of televisions of each quality grade, specification, and brand was counted, and then the total weight was calculated.
Weighing was just to show the customer how much one television weighed.
Therefore, the weight calculation was very fast, done in a few minutes.
A total of 170 color TVs and 220 black and white TVs.
The accountant from Yaming Electronic Company tallied with Fang Bai: "Boss, 2.52 tons of Class 1 color TVs, 1.20 tons of Class 2 color TVs, 3.15 tons of Class 1 black and white TVs, plus some components and voltage converters, for a total of 11,320 yuan!"
For Yaming Electronic Company, it was also a big order; the business manager personally came over to be polite with Fang Bai, saying they could round down the odd amount.
Fang Bai blinked: "Manager Chen, rounded down to ten thousand yuan?"
"Haha, Manager Fang, it's 11,300 yuan; if we took off that much, our leaders would kill me."
Fang Bai clicked his tongue, muttering to himself: "Well, saving 20 yuan is 20 yuan, enough for the porters' fees."
"Then let's settle the bill; I believe we'll meet again soon."
"Okay, I wish you prosperous business."
A moment later, the payment was completed.
Fang Bai still had over two thousand yuan left; if these televisions weren't managed well, he would have wasted his effort.
Next, Fang Bai personally checked the loading situation. He was afraid that the television screens would be damaged during transport, so he personally used foam pads to separate the screens.
It wasn't until past 7 PM that the loading was completed. Fang Bai paid the porters their wages, got into the passenger seat of the truck, and set off with the driver.
They passed a small restaurant, invited the driver to have dinner together, and continued their journey after eating.
It was past 10 PM when the truck finally arrived at the rented house.
At this hour, it was too difficult to find people to unload the goods, so they would have to find people to unload in the morning.
Fang Bai gave the driver another pack of cigarettes, and the driver was agreeable. In exchange for the cigarettes and free meal, he said that if the unloading was completed before 1 PM tomorrow, he could make it back to the company before 3 PM. He would sleep on the floor on the first level tonight, as he needed to keep an eye on the fuel tank to prevent anyone from stealing fuel in the middle of the night.
A tank of fuel was worth a lot of money; if it were stolen, he would have trouble explaining it to his unit.
Fang Bai was at ease and went directly to the second level to sleep.
If anyone tried to steal televisions, he would hear some movement, and the driver was also watching downstairs.
Thanks to: Hall Master "Tianhai Xiangyun", Ostrich Master "Jianhun Platform" and other book friends for their tips.