Chapter 233
Luke looked up the name of the band and the song on the Internet.
The quarrymen were the predecessor of the Beatles.
That’ll Be The Day was the band’s only album.
It was released in a very small number of copies and has a high collector’s value.
In 2012, it was valued at $250,000 by a professional record magazine.
Luke rarely listens to music, but the Beatles are so famous that it would be hard for him not to know about them.
The band was known as ‘one of the greatest, most influential and successful bands in the history of popular music’.
Luke’s concern now was not the band itself, but the value of the record.
It had been valued at $250,000 ten years ago, doubling it wasn’t too much to ask, how could it be worth half a million dollars.
Luke was a little excited, but not so excited that he couldn’t sleep.
He knows that this is likely to be the system to provide the opportunity to realize, otherwise, how can there be such a good thing, he spent 500 dollars to buy a record player, attached to the record box to get a record worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
All Luke had to do now was to inquire about the exact market of this record and sell it for as high a price as possible.
The next day.
Luke woke up, his whole body was energized, as if he had endless energy.
In the morning, he was ready to actually find out the valuation of this out-of-print record.
As for collecting it himself, Luke didn’t have that kind of idea, nor was he that elegant.
More importantly, Luke had to go to work, he could not go to work with the record, and left the record at home and do not rest assured.
So, it is better to simply sell it.
Luke also knows that the price of such collectible records is often not fixed.
If he met a rich audiophile, not to mention 250,000 dollars, 500,000 dollars, the other party is also willing to buy.
Finding a suitable customer is very important, want to sell at a higher price must ask around.
Luke is prepared to go to three places to inquire, the first place or antique stores, the second place specializing in the sale of records store, the third place auction house.
Among them, Luke expected the auction house the most.
Luke first went to the antique store, only this time changed a street, changed a place, he will not be stupid enough to go to buy a record of the antique store fool, that is not nothing to look for smoke?
Los Angeles has more than one antique street, this antique street is closer to the center of the city, Luke chose a larger store, the store is called Strange House.
As soon as he entered, a Latin beauty greeted Luke, “Sir, what kind of collectibles do you want to buy?”
“I’m not buying, but I have something to sell. Is your boss here?”
The Latin girl asked, “What do you want to sell?”
“An out-of-print record.”
“Okay, just a moment.”
After a while, a black man in his thirties came from the back of the store wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, “Sir, sorry to keep you waiting.”
Luke asked back, “Are you the store owner?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a say in the price of acquiring items?”
“Of course, I hear you’re looking to sell an out-of-print vinyl record?”
“Yes.”
“What band?”
“The quarrymen.”
The black man was a little surprised, “The precursor to the Beatles?”
“That’s right.”
“The That’ll Be The Day album?”
“Yes.”
“How much do you want to sell it for?”
“Seven hundred thousand dollars.”
The black man shook his head, “You’re out of your mind. That record album is precious, but nowhere near that price.”
“You’re the one who asked me? It’s my freedom to ask a price.” Luke asked rhetorically, “Are you interested in buying it?”
“Of course, but your asking price is too high, not to mention I can’t give it to anyone else.
Rich people aren’t stupid.”
“Then how much do you think is appropriate?”
“Three hundred thousand dollars.”
“You’re not the only antique store on this street.”
“Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“It seems you don’t like this out-of-print record very much.” Luke turned to leave.
“Four hundred thousand dollars, that’s the highest price, no one can beat me.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” Luke continued to walk out, he had only asked for one, he didn’t want to sell it so easily.
Seeing that Luke was determined to go, the black shopkeeper said, “Sir, what’s your name? Can you give me a contact information? I’ll discuss it with the other partners later, and if they agree, they can continue to increase the price.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Luke told the other party his cell phone number.
After that, Luke went to a record store.
The owner of the record store liked the out-of-print record very much, and after some bargaining, the other party offered 450,000 dollars.
Finally, Luke went to an auction house – Garris Auction House.
The auction industry in the United States is also very developed, learned of Luke’s intention, the manager of the auction house personally received Luke.
There are professional appraisers responsible for identifying and evaluating the price of vinyl records.
Eventually gave a half a million dollars to 700,000 dollars between the auction interval price.
The auction house gave the highest estimate, but to charge a commission of ten percent.
It was a big deal, and Luke didn’t decide right away.
He returned home, grabbed his record player, and drove to Robert’s birthday dinner.
After ten minutes or so, a black Honda parked not far from Luke’s house opened its door and a black man got out of the car, looked around to see that no one was around, and quickly ran to Luke’s house.
The black man took out a tool from his pocket, opened the door lock of Luke’s house very nimbly, and quietly sneaked into the house.
The black man put on gloves and footwear and rummaged through the house, seemingly looking for something.
He was quick and professional, searching the entire house.
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to find what he was looking for.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly realized that there was an additional dark-haired young man in the living room, “FUCK! Scared the hell out of me!”
“What are you idiots doing in my house?”
The dark-haired youth was none other than Luke.
After Luke gave the record player to Robert, he didn’t attend the party and directly returned home.
As for the reason for returning home, it wasn’t that Luke had discovered a problem, but rather with his intuition from his many years in the police force.
He had just obtained an out-of-print record worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, it was like putting hundreds of thousands of dollars around, it was inevitable that he would be targeted by someone who had the intention to do so, he must not be careless at this time.
Although the police were sort of his protective color, the world was never short of people with lucrative interests, and there was no harm in being cautious.
Luke returned to his home, and sure enough, he found the problem and blocked the thief.
The black man saw Luke pointing a gun at himself and hurriedly raised his hands, “Sir, I’m unarmed and no threat to you, please don’t shoot.”
“What are you doing in my house?”
“I was just hungry and wanted to come to your house to get something to eat.
SORRY, I know what I’m doing is wrong, you can call the police on me.”
“You came here to steal that out-of-print vinyl record? How did you know about it? Who instructed you to come?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just hungry and came to your house to get something to eat, I don’t know anything about any vinyl at all.”
“I hate people who lie.”
“Like I said, you can call the police.”
Luke flashed his badge, “I don’t need to call the police.”
“Even if you’re not, you’re actually a police officer!” A shocked, remorseful look appeared on the black man’s face.
“Who sent you to steal my vinyl?”
“I told you, I’m not here to steal vinyl, you’re mistaken.” The black man was self-conscious enough to put his hands over his head and drop to his knees, “You can have me arrested.”
Luke didn’t like this kind of thief, not reckless and still knew the law, attempted theft, his charge wouldn’t be too serious, he might pay a bail and get out.
Luke wasn’t about to let him off that easy.
A thief coming into his own home and rummaging through his house was not something honorable for a police officer to do.
More importantly, this thief came to his house to steal something, 80% because of that vinyl record, if he couldn’t catch the person behind the accusation, the other party might also lay a hand on him, so he had to be on guard.
Since the thief didn’t cooperate, Luke didn’t have to be polite: “Do you have a gun?”
“I don’t have one, I never carry a weapon, and I’m no threat to you.” The black man still maintained the kneeling position with his hands on his head.
Because he knew very well that Luke wouldn’t dare to shoot easily in this situation.
This wasn’t Texas, it was California, a typical weak castle law state.
The homeowner could only shoot defensively if he was warned first, backed down, had been violated, and was desperate.
A homeowner who actively shoots to kill is apt to get in trouble.
“No, you are a threat to me. You were instructed to steal the vinyl, but instead of finding the vinyl, you found a spare handgun from my nightstand.
Unwilling to go home empty-handed, you prepared to steal my spare gun.
At this time, you happened to hear a commotion outside the door, and you knew I was back.
You then took my spare gun and prepared to kill me, creating the illusion that I killed myself.” Luke analyzed in a serious manner.
“No, I’ve never seen any spare gun at all, search it if you don’t believe me.”
Luke crouched down and took out a small spare gun from under his pants leg, then pushed it from the ground to the black man not far away, “You have it now.”
“NoNoNo!
Please don’t do this, PLEASE……” the black man seemed to figure it out and kept praying.
Luke made a silent gesture, “Don’t yell, move slower and pick up that gun.”
“Please, let me go, I won’t touch that gun, I won’t ……” The black man had a sob in his voice and moved his knees away from the gun.
“Pick up that gun, kill me, and you can leave.
The vinyl is in my Mercedes, you can take it, Come on!”
“NoNo…… please, I won’t touch the gun, never……”
“You know what? I’ve investigated a lot of cases, and some of them are hard to get to the bottom of, like a gun that has a suspect’s fingerprints on it, but the suspect is dead.
Do you think he touched the gun while he was alive, or did he touch it after he died?
There’s something to be said for all of that.”
Luke’s voice got smaller the more he spoke, “I know how to tell!”
The black man was trembling with fear, tears and snot running down his face, “Please, don’t kill me, I’ll tell you everything.
It was the owner of a pawn shop who instructed me to come here, he’s the one who told me to steal the vinyl.”
“What pawn shop?”
“The csj pawn shop.”