Fang Bai had studied English for a month, and he didn't expect such a great improvement.
He planned to memorize thirty to forty words a day, and after a month, coupled with his previous foundation, he could be said to have memorized the vocabulary of most high school students.
It wasn't that he was a good student, but rather that the English questions of that era were relatively simple compared to later generations, and reading comprehension rarely had pitfalls.
Therefore, Fang Bai scored relatively high, actually getting all basic points, taking advantage of the times.
Fang Bai was immediately considered a top student by his classmates, not a bad student.
After one exam, he didn't expect his image in the eyes of his classmates to improve so much.
The morning after receiving the test papers, he had the part-time college student dismantle the remaining TV casings first so he could analyze TV malfunctions and mark them.
Unusable broken casings, wires, and other TV components were piled into several heaps. Fang Bai asked his father to take them to a scrap collection station for disposal; any money they could sell for was still money.
Save money whenever possible, even if it's just one yuan.
Where money needed to be spent, Fang Bai was not stingy.
This spending habit was a true Wen City boss's mindset, though Fang Bai was relatively more generous.
After eating, he planned to take a car to T City again to prepare for the second purchase of TV foreign garbage.
For this long trip, he carried forty thousand yuan in his backpack. Valuables that were too conspicuous, like a bp machine, were also stuffed into his backpack, and he dressed more simply.
From his appearance, he looked like an ordinary young man, reading a math book on the bus, with a student's demeanor, not at all like a rich person.
Traveling alone in this era, making yourself look like a rich person was not a good thing.
He wore sneakers, ready to run at any time.
If he saw that the situation was bad, he would run. Making money was easy in this era, but it was also not easy.
At just past one in the afternoon, Fang Bai departed from Oubei Bus Station by long-distance bus, only arriving in T City at just past three in the afternoon.
Selecting TVs takes a long time, and time was pressing, so he had no time to select TVs this afternoon and had to stay overnight in T City.
He planned to select motorcycles in the afternoon; two to three hours would be enough for him to select a motorcycle, and he would select TVs tomorrow.
Fang Bai planned to select a larger quantity of TVs this time, around five hundred units, with 21-inch color TVs making up the majority.
For transportation, he still chose a 9.6-meter box truck, which could just fit five hundred TVs; any more TVs would be difficult to load.
After several rounds of sales, Fang Bai had a certain understanding of the local consumption capacity in Wen City.
29-inch color TVs with a selling price of two to three thousand yuan were equally popular, but if the quantity was too large, the market would quickly become saturated.
Additionally, 29-inch TVs were relatively scarce.
14-inch and 17-inch black and white TVs were cheap and easy to sell, but they didn't make much money.
14-inch and 21-inch color TVs were also very popular and were the main market focus.
However, it was impossible to choose only color TVs; many customers still couldn't afford a 14-inch color TV costing over three hundred yuan, so they could only choose cheaper black and white TVs.
Therefore, while choosing more color TVs, there also needed to be a portion of black and white TVs.
After leaving the T City Bus Station, Fang Bai took a pedicab to Daguangyou Solid Waste Recycling Company. The pedicab Master said that this type of metal recycling company was very strong locally and had many used motorcycles.
Fang Bai had always been thinking about a motorcycle; if the family had one, it would be more convenient for his parents to travel between home and the city, and also for slightly longer distances.
He planned to attend university in another city, otherwise, two motorcycles would be enough for the family.
Two motorcycles for one family, that would be too extravagant.
Of course, Fang Bai had also considered used cars.
But he gave up on the idea after realizing he couldn't get a license plate, and although motorcycles required license plates, not having one wouldn't get him stopped by traffic police; enforcement on motorcycles wasn't strict in those days.
Moreover, getting a motorcycle license plate wasn't difficult.
Upon reaching the destination, Fang Bai got out of the car and observed the company's gate.
The company occupied about a hundred acres, with many iron sheds built on the open-air ground, housing various used metal equipment, including cars and motorcycles.
At this time, there were many customers on the premises. Fang Bai casually entered, and after arriving, he told the staff he was there to pick goods and then looked around freely.
After walking around and observing, he had a general understanding; these used goods were indeed very old, with very long service lives.
Fang Bai thought about it and realized that equipment has high value, and problems usually occur with parts, which are easy to repair, unlike electronic products, which are difficult to repair and require high testing technology, so they are just thrown away.
The metal equipment within the premises was dismantled and decomposed according to material categories. Most of the useless parts were transported to steel mills for smelting. The price was based on the steel mill's metal recycling price, so the solid waste recycling company didn't make much money from this.
Acquiring these scrap metals from foreigners cost money; the cost was relatively higher compared to other foreign garbage, unlike cardboard and electronic waste which were free. It was just that foreigners also had to pay dismantling and environmental protection fees, selling them cheaply to solid waste recycling companies, which then sold them to China.
The usable parts were then dismantled and sold as used parts, and that was the profitable part.
The used motorcycles on the premises that could not be recycled had already been dismantled and sold as scrap iron. Those remaining on the premises were in better condition and much more expensive than scrap iron.
It's just that repairing them would be very difficult.
People who come here to find bargains are usually from auto repair shops, specializing in refurbishment.
Motorcycle foreign garbage imported from island nations generally includes brands like Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki.
For example, the imported new Honda 125 motorcycle, a model with a very large domestic ownership, sells for over fifteen thousand yuan domestically, which is simply unaffordable for ordinary people, and Fang Bai was reluctant to spend that much money.
Buying a used motorcycle would also cost over five thousand yuan, and finding one with a good engine was relatively difficult. It would be better to assemble one himself from this pile of motorcycles, which wouldn't cost much money.
The used motorcycles on the premises were still sold by the ton, and couldn't be dismantled. One ton cost 3000 yuan, while the current steel price was only 1400 yuan per ton.
For a Honda 125 model, the total weight is about 130 kilograms, which would cost about 390 yuan.
There were also individual parts retailed, all refurbished, with varying prices.
Fang Bai mainly looked at the engines first, not considering cars with displacements over 125. There weren't many of them, making it difficult to assemble parts, and they were too powerful and consumed too much fuel, with heavy bodies. If he bought one, his father probably wouldn't be willing to drive it, so what would be the point?
There were many Honda motorcycles on site, so he mainly chose this brand for easier parts assembly.
After about ten minutes, Fang Bai picked out a Honda motorcycle with an engine that had been used for fewer years and had an oil leak due to a damaged engine gasket. It only needed the gasket replaced.
For some car engines, Fang Bai tested them and found the engine analysis color had turned yellow, and some had even turned red, making them irreparable.
The car Fang Bai was interested in had over twenty other parts that needed replacing. From the outside, it looked quite old. He guessed the original owner didn't drive it much and wasn't short on money, so after the car broke down, it wasn't properly repaired and was left unattended.
Whether that was the case was hard to say, but Fang Bai had his eyes on this car anyway.
Then he would spend another two hundred yuan to buy some parts and transport them back to Master Chen for repair.
There was no need to buy another car for parts. It was best to buy new tires, which wouldn't cost much.
He would just fix up one used motorcycle himself, and buy a new one when he had more money later.
He was spending money everywhere now, and making money wasn't easy, which was why he wanted to do it himself.
Once his funds were ample, he would go straight for a car.
Of course, realizing his car dream would probably be after the subscription certificates.
Fang Bai had also considered refurbishing and selling cars and motorcycles, but now he found it difficult to find good vehicles, it was too time-consuming, and the refurbishment difficulty was very high, so the speed of making money was not as good as refurbishing televisions.
After settling on a car, Fang Bai told the on-site staff which car he had chosen and that he would come to transport it away tomorrow morning, but he had to pay a deposit.
No problem, Fang Bai paid a fifty yuan deposit and left after receiving the receipt.