As the crowd burst into excitement, Deia gestured to the VIP box where the Appraisers resided. "May I get an Esteemed Appraiser to verify my words to appease the buyers?"
Everyone glanced at the VIP room for the Appraiser Guild and this time an older man came out. He had a gentle smile on his face and small reading glasses with round rims.
"Hahaha, greetings everyone, my name is Fabio Lamonte, although many might just know me as the 36th Elder."
Seeing that was another A-Rank Appraiser had come out, the crowd settled down as they waited for the verdict. While they wanted to believe Deia, it was better to be sure. After all, the kind of money they were spending was not a joke.
Fabio inspected the five items carefully through a strange pink light that had morphed his pupils into three split rhomboid-like shapes. He spent half an hour going through all five items meticulously, yet no one was showing any signs of impatience.
In fact, the more time he spent on those items the more assured they felt about the validity of his verdict, as well as the possibility that he might discover any hidden uses they might hold.
Eventually, Fabio stopped and sighed deeply, just as Gwen had before. This told the crowd - once again - all they needed to know.
"Every claim Madam Stone has made is true… and there is more." Fabio began and was about to continue, but Deia patted his shoulder and shook her head.
Surprised, Fabio nodded. "There are some extra benefits in each item, but it seems that shall be for the buyer to discover on their own. Good luck, everyone."
Fabio returned to his room, while the others in the auction began muttering and chatting. They were confused as to why the auctioneer would choose to withhold information about their items if it was beneficial?
Some felt they were deliberately acting mysterious, while the most astute ones realized that this was also part of the protection the auction house was offering!
Those benefits must have been intentionally left out because while they could raise the value of the materials, it would also raise their danger value!
After all, they could not be protected forever, and once someone bought these materials, they would have to use them at some point, right? This would eventually reveal their identity and might lead to trouble.
Many were moved by how far the auction house had gone to protect their buyers, while the powerhouses did not care. They were strong enough to beat back all fools, and they had come here for the grand prize at the end of the auction!
However, everyone was overthinking.
Darius had decided to do that from the beginning to subtly raise the value of the items in everyone's eyes. He was passable in many other fields but when it came to mercantilism, he was a God!
If he would ever have the fortune to meet Waukeen, the Goddess of Wealth might just find her Divine Attribute abandon her to elope with Darius.
"Please note that these five items are only for display. This section of the auction will be a bulk sale. We have 1,000 pieces in stock for the first item, 500 pieces each for the second and third items as well as 100 pieces for the fourth and fifth item."
"The scrolls will be sold in batches of 100, the manual and tomes in batches of 50, and the paper and tablet in batches of 10."
"The starting price for the scrolls is 10 Supreme Coins per batch. The minimum increase is 1 coin! I can only advise you to do your best to bid on these items now, since although all five will be sold in our various shops in the city, their retail price will be twice what it is now!" Deia explained with a smile.
Upon hearing this, many fellows nodded. The auction house was truly intelligent. Despite popular belief, auctions weren't held to sell exotic items at exorbitant prices, but to sell batches of items at wholesale or even cost price.
It was just that, in media, it was boring to hear common stuff be auctioned for cheaper prices. It was far more exciting to see exotic stuff being peddled at a higher price with various fellows spending foolishly and insulting each other while they were at it.
The magical scrolls were soon sold off. Since their base price was 10 coins, the lowest they sold for was 25 Supreme Coins and the highest was 55 Supreme Coins.
Some bought them to try and research how to reverse engineer them. Others bought them to experiment and study what was so special about them.
Some bought them to resell at higher prices outside the auction and some bought them to process into finished goods and then sell them as part of their trade.
This gap in intentions was why the price was all over the place, but it was quite predictable, this was how such batch auctions were supposed to be.
"Next, we have the spell manuals. Each batch starts at 50 Supreme Coins and the minimum increment is 2 coins! Bidding, start!"
Despite the high price, no one complained anymore. They understood the value of these items and for those who could even process them into finished goods, they could resell them for around 100-200 Supreme Coins of profit.
That was the point of raw materials. There was no logic in buying something that cost more than it was worth… at all!
The 10 batches of spell manuals were sold at 78 Supreme Coins at the cheapest and 122 Supreme Coins for the final set. Once again, the intentions of the buyers varied, so no one particularly made a loss.
In fact, most of the bidders had come from the bottom floors, as they had pooled their money together to bid. After receiving the items, they would share them amongst themselves.
A Guard Android would later bring it to the room of the one who had placed the final bid and whether the winner would honor the agreement or flee with the product would not be Darius' problem.
The success of the spell manuals made people curious to see how the tomes would do.
After all, even though they had the same quantity, they were far superior to a single manual because they could hold a lot more at once, perfect for academies, schools, and mage towers.
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