I'm back in 1990

Chapter 163: The Stamp Market Collapses

Thursday, September 5th, marked the official start of the second year of university.

On their way to the classroom, a few students from class 222 stopped to watch the freshmen's military training. Ding Yi, Zhang Gaolei, and Chen Zhe mainly wanted to see if there were any pretty girls. That's how men are; a beautiful lady is a gentleman's dream!

Moreover, these people are all quite wealthy now, so the saying "when you're well-fed and clothed, you think about food" is absolutely true.

Unfortunately, both men and women were wearing military training uniforms, looking like big green frogs, and their hair was covered by hats, so it was impossible to tell whether they looked good or not, especially since they were quite far away.

Soon the group lost interest. In fact, Huang Xiaochuan and Wu Duo were just there to watch. They both had girlfriends, unlike the three single guys, and they weren't as eager as the others!

The five continued on their way to the classroom and ran into Dai Xiaoguang. Upon seeing Huang Xiaochuan, Dai Xiaoguang beamed and said, "This saves me the trouble of having someone deliver it to you. Here's your letter; it looks like it was sent by an academic journal."

Huang Xiaochuan immediately guessed that this might be a paper written by his second senior brother that had been published. Since it was sent here, he must also be one of the authors, but he didn't know which author he was.

Urged by Dai Xiaoguang, Huang Xiaochuan opened the large envelope. Sure enough, it was a journal. He looked at the table of contents and found the paper written by his senior brother Jiang Qiming. Not bad! He was actually the first author, although he was listed after Jiang Qiming.

Jiang Qiming is the first author and corresponding author. Among the second authors, Huang Xiaochuan only knows Yan Wen. The others are probably his students.

It seems that this second senior brother is working hard to become a full professor in the future!

Unlike Huang Xiaochuan's indifference, Dai Xiaoguang, after confirming that Huang Xiaochuan had no intention of keeping the journal, happily took it away, intending to report this good news to the department.

The other four naturally knew as well. Ding Yi hugged Huang Xiaochuan's neck and pleaded, "Could you write another paper when you have some free time? I want to be the second author again, okay?"

Huang Xiaochuan slapped away the arm wrapped around his neck in an annoyance: "Do you think this is writing an essay? You can't just write whatever you want. I don't have time lately, and I haven't thought about any research topics. I just want to focus on my classes."

However, Ding Yi was thinking further ahead: "It's okay if I don't have one now. When I'm a senior, I need to write my graduation thesis. Can you help me choose a topic for it?"

Upon hearing Ding Yi's words, the others also turned their gazes to Huang Xiaochuan. It's no exaggeration to say that in dormitory 222 and even among the entire Class of '90 Economics students, Huang Xiaochuan's ability to write papers was second to none.

Ding Yi had already decided to write his graduation thesis, and the others naturally wanted to do the same.

Huang Xiaochuan agreed to help, since they had been classmates for four years and lived in the same dormitory.

"Alright! But don't get your hopes up too high. If I run out of ideas by then, I might have to rely on you guys to help me graduate."

Ding Yi gave Huang Xiaochuan a disdainful look: "You're getting better and better at pretending, kid. You're really good at showing off!"

Damn it! This is intolerable! Huang Xiaochuan immediately wanted to kick the kid, but Ding Yi was already prepared. As soon as he saw Huang Xiaochuan was about to kick him, he quickly slipped away.

1991年9月14日国家邮政局发行了「赈灾」邮票，发行量由原计划的1500万枚猛增到4000万枚，邮票发行首日，一个整版就由面值40元被炒到600元。

It's absolutely insane.

This was the final swan song of the 91 stamp market boom. When the true number of stamps issued for disaster relief was deliberately disclosed by the State Post Bureau through other channels, the stamp market, which had already reached its peak and could not rise any further, collapsed instantly.

The stamp market plummeted, and it was a terrifying, precipitous drop.

Just like the Shenzhen stock market, panic spread rapidly. Everyone wanted to sell the stamps they had bought at high prices, but there were only sell orders and no one was willing to take them, including the big investors.

They were doing business by buying and selling, making money from the price difference. The stamps they hoarded at the beginning of the stamp market boom had already been sold at high prices, and the money they got was reinvested in the stamp market. They bought today and sold a few days later, and that's how they always did it.

If the stamp market continues its strong performance, this game of musical chairs can continue. However, with the stock market's astonishing rise, it has attracted more and more people to enter the stock market, as evidenced by the stampede of stock subscription warrants.

Moreover, when those market manipulators were leaving the market, they deliberately drove up the prices of some stamps by a large margin, which lulled some stamp dealers who had initially sensed something was wrong into a false sense of security. In reality, it was all due to greed.

By the time they realized something was wrong, it was too late. The quick-thinking stamp dealers immediately sold off some of the stamps at a loss, but each of them had a large number of stamps in their hands. How could they possibly sell them all in a short time?

On September 18, a rumor circulated in the market that the number of disaster relief stamps issued had exceeded 40 million, and that the China Post had also adjusted the printing quantity of all stamps that had not yet been issued this year to tens of millions. This news spread quickly.

This was disastrous. This rumor became the final straw that broke the camel's back. Moreover, the General Post Office also disclosed the issuance volume of disaster relief stamps in the newspaper. With these two things aligned, the stamp market completely collapsed.

The government was already somewhat dissatisfied with the overheated stamp market. In order to cool it down, it launched a major offensive by increasing printing volume. Since the printing presses were all in the government's hands, they could print as much or as little as they wanted!

In the stamp market, stamp dealers who had stockpiled large quantities of stamps were all trembling with fear and anxiety. In fact, it would be impossible for none of them to feel that the price of stamps had gone too crazy this time.

In fact, Nan Hui had already sensed it. The soaring stamp prices a while ago made her extremely sensitive, and she also noticed that something was wrong. However, she had too much stock on hand, and no one in the market had that much money to take her goods.

Those who used to come to the stamp market to speculate on stamps have all gone to the stock market with their money now that the stock market is doing well, leaving the stamp market without funds. You know, a stamp market without liquidity is no different from a stagnant pool.

The remaining funds in the stamp market were simply insufficient to meet the massive demand from stamp dealers to liquidate their assets. In an instant, the stamp market burst like a giant, inflated balloon!

The stamps that were once worth millions or even tens of millions of yuan in the hands of stamp dealers collapsed completely, like an avalanche.

The prices of most stamps have been halved, and even more shockingly, postcards have plummeted to just a few dollars each. Keep in mind that at their peak, postcards were worth over seventy dollars each! That's a drop of dozens of times.

And the original discounted miniature sheets, which were originally junk stamps, have been reduced to their original state.

This process only took three days, just before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This dramatic fall was like a cascading waterfall, rushing down and splashing everywhere.

The stamp market has always had the flaw of limited liquidity. When the stamp market is booming, this flaw is temporarily masked. However, when the stamp market crashes, this flaw is magnified infinitely.

The stamp market, which used to be packed with people, has become deserted and no one cares about it.

This is a scenario that stamp dealers, speculators, and individual investors all want to avoid, but it's not something they can control.

The biggest headache for most of them now is how to repay the money they borrowed when they run out of money.

Nan Hui was one of them.

She essentially turned herself into a major dealer for the big players, while other dealers would take their profits, sell their goods, and move on to another market.

Nan Hui, however, foolishly accepted the goods from the dealers, thinking she could make a fortune, but things turned out this way.

The stamps and philatelic items that were originally worth more than ten million yuan have now lost two-thirds of their value. The only ones that have held up well are the full sheets of 80 Year of the Monkey stamps in my hand.

However, those 80-year monkey stocks have also fallen quite a bit, the key problem is that nobody is willing to buy them!

Moreover, Nan Hui did something stupid. In order to raise money to buy the complete set of 1980 monkeys from Huang Xiaochuan, Nan Hui mortgaged her old house to a loan shark and borrowed 500,000 yuan at a monthly interest rate of 15%.

In fact, Nan Hui could have paid back the money quickly, but seeing the booming stamp market, she invested the money back in and made it double in a month. So the 15% monthly interest was nothing!

Unexpectedly, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse in just a few months. Now Nan Hui has almost no cash left; all she has are stamps, piled up in the warehouse, which are like waste paper since they can't be converted into cash.

The person who lent her the money had already come. Nan Hui gritted her teeth and scraped together the last bit of money to pay a month's interest and send the person away. But what about next month?

All the shop assistants have been sent away; without business, they can't support so many people. Now, only A-Cheng is left in the shop, and he won't leave.

Hao Zhidu, this awesome guy, was also devastated, but he was alright; he just lost his money but was still alive.

At the peak of the stamp market, his net worth had reached over 300,000 yuan, not in cash but in stamps worth over 300,000 yuan. However, with the collapse of the stamp market, the value of these stamps in Hao Zhidu's hands plummeted. Even so, those stamps that had fallen so drastically were now impossible to sell. Who would want them after they had fallen so much? This meant that Hao Zhidu had no money left.

What Hao Zhi didn't know was that this process would last for five years, until the stamp market recovered in 1997. However, by then, he probably wouldn't have entered the stamp market again.

He was back to square one, having lost all the money his family had given him. He couldn't afford the monthly phone bill, rent, or living expenses. Luckily, he could still ask his family for help, otherwise he would have been dead.

Hao Zhi was definitely not going back to the dormitory. If they found out he had lost so much money, who knew how much they would laugh at him? That was what Hao Zhi thought.