HLM -Chapter 1283 Buy Everything

Later, after hearing the introduction, Wang Bo understood the origin of these books.

No wonder they were being sold so cheaply—it turned out they were all books the government had purchased for International Book Day to lend out.

“Every new ruler brings new policies,” Wang Bo thought. When the new leadership came into power, some policies changed. These books were no longer kept for lending but were to be sold to convert into cash, which could then be used for other purposes.

“It’s said that the new Prime Minister launched some kind of orphan support program and needs to find funding from various sources. Selling these books as useless—isn’t that ridiculous?” said the warehouse manager, smiling wryly at the end.

Wang Bo shrugged. “Books are never useless. They’re just bought by the right people. If someone is willing to purchase them, they will be used. Besides, these are second-hand books; selling them while they can still fetch some money is a reasonable plan by the government.”

The warehouse manager shook his head. “Many of these books are as good as new. Selling them so cheaply really makes me angry. Knowledge shouldn’t be so cheap.”

Wang Bo smirked. He wasn’t fooled—the manager was trying to provoke him into making a purchase decision.

After walking around the warehouse a couple of times, Wang Bo realized the manager wasn’t telling the whole truth.

Some books may indeed have been purchased by the government for lending during Book Day, but a significant portion was not; some were heavily worn.

Perhaps New Zealanders weren’t obsessed with books, but if borrowed books were returned in such poor condition, people would have to buy replacements themselves.

So he guessed that many of the books had come from the dump.

It wasn’t strange for a dump to contain books. New Zealand doesn’t have a scrap collection industry, so household waste must be taken to designated locations.

For instance, when someone buys new furniture, the old furniture must first be stored in a warehouse, not simply thrown away—especially for large items.

Small trash could fit in bins, but if the bin wasn’t big enough, local regulations required that it wait until the annual waste collection day.

Different regions had different collection schedules. If there wasn’t enough space, people had to transport it to the processing plant themselves, paying both transportation and disposal fees, which could be expensive.

Of course, New Zealand has many second-hand stores, but they differ from Chinese scrap collection points.

Scrap collectors pay for discarded items, whereas second-hand stores never pay—they only handle items that might be sold.

From a Chinese perspective: if an item can be sold, why give it away for free?

There were two main reasons people did: one, ordinary households couldn’t process waste themselves; two, donating unused items to a second-hand store was considered charity. Many second-hand stores were connected to charities or churches, acting as semi-charitable institutions.

Dumps also contained many books because second-hand stores weren’t very interested in them. In recent years, New Zealanders had gone through a “reading drought,” and interest in printed books declined, making them hard to sell.

With this understanding, Wang Bo refused to buy the books at the warehouse company’s quoted price.

But he couldn’t walk away either. The warehouse company had advertised online and in newspapers, and plenty of people came to buy books.

Of course, these buyers had different intentions than Wang Bo. Among so many discounted books, there were surely some valuable or even antique books.

New Zealand’s history wasn’t very long, so books a few decades old could be considered antiques and could fetch a good price; collectors were always out there.

After a round of inspection, Wang Bo asked Hani and a few others, “What do you think? If we buy these books for the library, would that work?”

Hani nodded. “No problem. Most are in good condition. There aren’t many dirty or damaged ones.”

Satisfied with this answer, Wang Bo approached the warehouse manager. “If we buy all the books—no picking and choosing—what’s the lowest price?”

“Two million,” the manager said with a smile.

Wang Bo signaled Hani, who raised one finger. “How about one million?”

The manager shook his head repeatedly. “Sorry, that’s too low. We can’t accept it.”

Hani said, “Don’t be hasty. Your refusal doesn’t mean the government will refuse. These are government books, right? How about this: go back and discuss with your superiors. This is a fair price.”

The manager insisted, “I’m responsible for selling these books. One million is impossible. One point nine million is the lowest price.”

“I don’t want buying books to feel like buying groceries. Knowledge is priceless. I hope we respect it rather than treat it like ordinary goods. So no bargaining—one point five million is our bottom line!” Hani declared.

As the manager was about to reply, Atulu stopped him. “Think about it, buddy. If you pick and choose, how long will it take to sell these books? Just the warehouse holding costs alone will be huge.”

Hani added, “And what if a large batch remains? Throw it away? Send it to the dump? Pulp it? No matter what, the media will report it—when someone offered to buy the books, you refused, but later you treated them as garbage.”

Under this barrage, the manager finally wavered. “One point five million is really too low… one point six million. That’s the real bottom price.”

Hani looked at Wang Bo, who thought for a moment and nodded. This price was acceptable.

Seeing this, the manager whistled and told the security guards at the door, “Close the doors and escort everyone out. These books already have an owner.”

Some of the would-be buyers were unhappy. “You just advertised! Why aren’t you selling?”

“Do you know how far we came from Roborough?”

“Are you kidding? Was this a false advertisement?”

The manager cunningly used Wang Bo as a shield: “This gentleman has bought all the books for one point six million. If anyone wants to pay more, we won’t let them pick here—we’ll hand all the books to him.”

A hush fell. Many directed glances at Wang Bo, but he didn’t care. He walked straight out, leaving Charlie behind to finalize the transaction with the warehouse company.

Even after buying all the books, they couldn’t go directly into the library. Some were too dirty, so he’d need to hire staff to clean them. Even hiring a hundred people to handle this would still be far cheaper than buying new books.