The last time I tried to sell my silver wasn’t successful as the old gold shop was closed for long holiday. I hadn’t been there since the plandemic so I wondered if the shop still operated as usual. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to sell my silver. It’s very difficult to buy and sell silver bars and imported silver balls. I only recently knew about a foreign company selling silver ingots and silver balls (for making jewelry). Gold jewelry and gold bars have been the main items for people to have as long term savings.
I happened to know about this old gold shop in Chinatown, which also sold imported pure silver balls for making jewelry, from my previous jewelry vendor. So, I decided to invest in some pure silver balls several years ago. But I was quite disappointed by the quiet doldrums in the silver market as it has always been heavily manipulated. My gold bars had gained over fifty percent increase in prices over the years which allowed me to survive during the bad times.
My intention was to test whether this gold vendor would buy back their own silver balls at market price. So, I would have some assurance for my future financial plans. The best way for me was to take the cheap hot bus from New Road towards Chinatown. This would be the quickest way to get to the gold shop as the bus stop was about five minutes’ walk.
The day was sunny and warm with blue sky which perked up my spirit despite my feeling of uncertainty about my trip to sell my silver savings. I was very tempted by all the yummy Thai sweets at a shop on New Road. This shop had all my favourite sweets but I had to restrain myself as the bus could arrive at any moment. I had to take some photos to comfort myself, I promised myself to treat myself next time.
The bus arrived in less than ten minutes and I could get a seat. The economy wasn’t in better shape as the atmosphere along New Road was very quiet and subdued. People weren’t coming out to do shopping or going to restaurants during the weekend. Lots of small shops were closed on weekends as they didn’t have any customers these days. The bus cruised through relatively empty road till it reached the beginning of Yaowarad road or Chinatown. I rooked photos of the old buildings, old grand building of Royal Postal Service and some old shops. I was glad that there were still old buildings to give me a sense of stability and continuity. Though all things were impermanent and kept on changing according to Buddhist teachings.
I liked traveling by the cheap bus without air- conditioning as most passengers were ordinary people with empathy and compassion. I could chat with a nearby passenger without any scorn and the bus conductor was very friendly and helpful. If I were in the special air-conditioned bus, I could always feel the cold and ‘mind your business attitude’ among ‘richer passengers.’ These people wouldn’t talk to strangers for fear of acting like simple or ordinary people. I always felt very comfortable being among ordinary villagers and underprivileged people. I was lucky that I grew up with these under-educated Chinese workers so I could understand their mentality and aspirations. That’s probably why I could go to dark alleys in Chinatown full of Chinese workers. Sometimes I could even joyed them in their afternoon Chinese tea break. They made me miss my Chinese grandparents very much. They were so poor when I was a kid and I had no chance of paying back my gratitude.
I was so glad to see Chinese and western tourists along Chinatown, though the crowds would get thicker in the evening when street food scene would be in full swing. The traffic was moderate early in the afternoon. I could notice that most gold shops were rather empty of customers. The gold price had gone higher than $3,000 for the first time! Now I couldn’t afford to buy any small pieces of gold, I had to turn to crypto instead. The profit from selling my silver saving would be handy for buying some crypto. My brain was busy thinking about the future and some preparations for coming upheavals as usual.
The bus trip took under forty minutes to reach my bus stop. As I had extra time for a short walk, I decided to visit my first family home in Chinatown where I grew up. The four rows of old shophouses were bought by a multi millionaire’s company several years ago. This project was very ambitious and had the ‘impossible’ expectations of creating a new inclusive shopping complex to cater for the increase in tourism. The project was too ambitious and caused a lot of sufferings among poor people who had been living at very low rents for more than fifty years.
The land and shophouses belonged to the King Rama V’s project to offered cheap housing to all Chinese immigrants working in Chinatown. The overthrow of the monarchy meant that all royal properties were confiscated and administered by civil servants from government. This opened up the opportunity for corruptions and collusions among bad politicians and some tycoons. Karma rules worked in mysterious way; the Covid plandemic caused unexpected disruptions to thus project. I didn’t think this ambitious and greedy project would be to make any return on investment. The bankers involved in this saga of evictions would have to put up with non-performing loans!
Our old family shophouses situated at the corner with four wooden door panels. The whole place had been nicely renovated and rents were very high at the beginning. Several people without the hindsight of the troublesome economy were persuaded to rent these shophouses and opened restaurants and coffee shops. I had seen a few shops being closed over the last few years. Less than 10% of these shophouses had been occupied. I walked around these newly painted shop houses with melancholy and nostalgic feelings. But I had to live in the moment and continued towards the old gold shop hidden away in a narrow alley.
It’s weekend so all the Chinese workers weren’t around the alley and the small street food stall was also closed. I couldn’t find any cheap lunch nearby so that would have to wait till later. I couldn’t remember the exact location of the shophouse as I hadn’t been there for several years. But I could remember the glass door so that was a good guess. I entered the small air conditioned office with excitement. There was no single customer inside, in the past there would be at least three or four customers waiting to sell their old gold jewelries. I would be the only one dropping in to buy pure silver balls for investment. Only jewelry designers would be buying these imported silver balls. So, the manager always recognised my face and strange orders.
This time, the same old manager was replaced by a younger chap with glasses. The elderly Chinese man, presumably the father of the family was sitting behind another table at the back. An old Chinese staff was waiting to serve the customers. The young manager told me to wait outside but I told him I had been here before and I wanted to sell the sumver balls I bought here some years ago. I proceeded to give him the original package of silver stilled neatly wrapped up with the old receipt. The young manager could recognise that the writings belonged to his brother.
I asked him where’s his brother as he used to know me quite well. He told me he was in the front office selling gold. I told him I wondered if he would buy back these silver balls. He promptly weighed the packet and calculated the sum I would get. He was very surprised that I almost got 100% profit. Though the shop looked very old fashioned and modest but there were cctv, modern weighting machine and instruments for checking the purity of precious metals.
I told them I wanted to use this money to get some Bitcoin while the price had come down. I asked them whether they had any BTC. The young manager told me they had none and didn’t know much about this crypto. So I listed all the names of big Chinese tycoons who had BTC. They were quite shocked and the elderly father asked me where he could buy BTC. I told them about the two big companies where they could buy crypto. It’s amazing how many educated people are still ignorant about the roles of cryptocurrencies, including my families. Even my dentist-friend thought Bitcoin wasn’t real as it couldn’t be touched like banknotes! It’s very difficult to talk about crypto to these people.
I was very happy knowing that I could always sell my silver savings at this old gold shop. The prospect of my future looked a bit brighter as life has been tougher this year. My crypto, gold and silver savings made it possible for me to survive the bad time and to get a new laptop. Had I only got deposits in the banks, I would have been starving and begging for help from friends! My decisions several years ago to buy gold, crypto, and silver had turned out to be very beneficial for me.
I had calculated my profit from selling these silver balls; I made 68.25% profit! The original investment would go towards buying crypto and the profit would go towards some new silver bars from a new company. I got to diversify and make my small investment lasting as long as possible. I was always very grateful to being on Hive and the hard fork which brought us extra crypto to let me survive the hard time.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
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