440 900 Million USD! (1/2)
”The commoners are indeed stupid. They are actually fighting for the item that we avoid like the plague,” Henry, the vampire, said sneeringly. That item had existed for more than ten thousand years. It had been transferred around countless times. The funny thing was, some people thought it had only existed for hundreds of years.
The inner circles of the Blood Kindred had explicitly forbidden them to come in contact with the Hope Diamond. In the past, there had been two Blood Kindred Lords who died under the Hope curse. It was an agonizing loss for them.
”The power of the curse of the Hope Diamond is small for commoners,” Royce said plainly. ”When a commoner acquires it, the probability of him being cursed is small. However, for us, the probability of being cursed is magnified. Hence, the commoners don't take the curse of the Hope Diamond seriously. After all, many owners of the Hope Diamond didn't encounter bad luck. In the end, they think that the Hope curse is merely a myth.” Only the existing ancient families understood the significance of the Hope curse. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the Hope Diamond to be circulating among the commoners all this while.
”Those foolish people. They don't know that they are buying a time bomb,” Henry said, amused.
The bidding for the Hope Diamond was continuing. However, its bidding increment was slow and had reached the minimum. Each bid increased the price by one million.
”800 million US dollars. It is indeed an exorbitant price!” A glint of amazement flashed in Yang Ting's eyes. It was equivalent to five billion Renminbi. Even if her clan went all in, they wouldn't enough much cash flow, unless they mortgaged their clan's properties.
Andrea softly sighed. ”The actual value of the Hope Diamond should be above 1.5 billion US dollars. That is what it would be worth if auctioned on a worldwide platform fair and square.”
Auctioning the Hope Diamond in this auction, and not promoting the news beforehand had caused its value to be underappreciated. If the promotion had been done properly and the diamond had been acquired through legal procedures, the auction price could reach two billion US dollars.
The blue diamond was one of the rarest diamonds in the world. It ranked second after the red diamond. The Hope Diamond was the king among the blue diamonds. Not long ago, a 122 carat blue diamond was discovered in South Africa. Its valuation was more than 600 million pounds, equivalent to one billion US dollars.
That blue diamond was far larger than the Hope Diamond. However, the value of a diamond was not completely dependent on its size. The quality and the historical value were taken into account too. The quality of the Hope Diamond was undoubtedly far better than that of the world's largest blue diamond. On top of that, it was mysterious and legendary. Its value was not something that the value of a newly discovered diamond could be compared to.
So, for the Hope Diamond to be auctioned for more than two billion US dollars was not at all exaggerating its value.
But in this auction, it would clearly be difficult for it to achieve such a price. Even one billion US dollars would be very difficult to achieve. Andrea's view that the Hope Diamond was wasted here was not without logic.
Yang Ting laughed coldly. ”Even 800 million US dollars is most likely an exorbitant price, let alone 1.5 billion. It's not something everyone can afford. For example, a certain person, who bites off more than he can chew.”
She looked meaningfully at Mo Wen. Mo Wen had not participated in the bidding at all. Most likely eighty percent of him had considered himself far behind and had completely given up.
”Indeed, he is biting off more than he can chew. He is most likely terrified by the starting bid,” Jiang Siyin seconded enigmatically.
”Are the two of you quite done?” Shen Jing looked at the two of them with a somewhat cold gaze. They had provoked them again and again. It was going too far.
”You people from Hua Xia, why is it that you all enjoy infighting so much?”
Andrea looked with puzzlement at Jiang Siyin and the rest, and, somewhat emotionally, said, ”I have long heard that the people of Hua Xia love infighting. From ancient times until now, they have been infighting without end. If it wasn't for this, Hua Xia would probably be able to stand at the top of the world, and not be inferior to America.”
Jiang Siyin and Yang Ting softly snorted. The two of them had been somewhat embarrassed by the words of a foreigner and did not say anything anymore. Both of them internally cursed at this foreigner who seemed to love to interfere.
Suddenly, in the middle of the display, a new bidding price appeared.
”900 million!”
The auction price had skyrocketed from 816 million to 900 million. It had completely overturned the situation where the competition had been getting slower towards the end. It had pushed the price to a new height.
Some people who were still bidding stared at the price on the screen, their throats slightly dry. They gave up on bidding. The price of 900 million had exceeded the baseline for many people. If they continued fighting for it, it would most likely be that they had to pay too much.
When this bid appeared, the whole hall was silenced for a moment. Nobody continued to bid.
Everyone had a baseline in their hearts. As Andrea said, it would be hard to sell the Hope Diamond with a price tag of one billion US dollars or above in this auction, due to the fact that the appearance of the Hope Diamond was not legal. When one acquired it, there would be a certain risk to bear. Additionally, some of the wealthiest nouveau riche in the world were most likely not at this auction.
In reality, most of the people bidding for the Hope Diamond in the auction were not intending to keep the diamond. Instead, they were prepared to secretly sell it off after they managed to bid for it and, from there, reap a profit.
If the bidding price of the Hope Diamond was too large, more than 1 billion or even higher, then for the businessman, it meant that the risk would be higher and the profits would be lower. Continuing to bid would not be a wise choice.
In the end, the price of 900 million was successfully bid by someone. And thus, the grand auction came to a close. Undoubtedly, the grand finale of the Hope Diamond had become the highlight of the entire auction, as the winning bid for the diamond was equal to the sum of all the other winning bids in this auction, making up half of the proceeds.