Renovating was truly troublesome and time-consuming, as reliable renovation teams were scarce back then, with many people working on a freelance basis.
Some relied entirely on introductions from relatives and neighbors.
Or they would find work through their own connections.
There was no reliable intermediary between those who wanted to renovate and those who did the renovating. Moreover, Ding Yun had no introductions and wanted to keep the renovation of her large storefront secret, as she was preparing to do business.
Therefore, finding someone was naturally more difficult.
At the same time, renovation materials were not all-inclusive at that time; Ding Yun had to buy them herself.
Thus, Ding Yun was extremely busy in the early stages of renovation.
She remained busy until she had purchased all the materials, found a renovation team, and paid an initial deposit.
Only then did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She then had time to start agonizing over what she should sell.
That's right, the storefront was already being renovated, but Ding Yun still hadn't decided what she would sell.
Selling food had its difficulties, selling jewelry had its difficulties, and selling other items also presented various challenges. The most crucial point was that Ding Yun felt she needed to test thoroughly, ideally by buying plenty of each type of blind box, which would undoubtedly be even more troublesome!
The related issues truly gave Ding Yun a headache.
It wasn't until the storefront was almost finished that Ding Yun decided to throw caution to the wind and just sell blind boxes.
At most, she wouldn't sell the blind boxes directly from the system but would first open them, then select items that could be sold and put them into blind boxes to sell. The price would be set within a range, for example, items priced between ten and twenty yuan would be put into a type of blind box, which would then be sold for eight yuan, or just ten yuan, ensuring that buyers of the blind boxes would never lose money. Even if they opened something they didn't like, they could return it or sell it elsewhere.
It seemed like this business could work.
As for the issue of products lacking labels and origin information, it wasn't that strict for now, so she would just sell them like this.
After selling for two years and accumulating some money.
At worst, she could register a few more trademarks or open a few factories; that should solve the sourcing issue.
With this idea, Ding Yun immediately began to buy various low-level blind boxes without restraint, and she kept opening them and sorting them. If her home couldn't fit them all, she stuffed them into her storage ring.
Items that could be sold as blind boxes were set aside.
Items that could be processed and sold as blind boxes were set aside.
Items that absolutely could not be sold as blind boxes were put on another pile.
After opening five thousand blind boxes and nearly exhausting her savings, Ding Yun officially stopped.
Then, of course, came the logistics: shipping, ordering boxes.
And hiring people to work, and so on.
The process actually encountered some problems, such as the items being of different sizes, making them difficult to fit into blind boxes, or once placed in a blind box, it would be obvious to others that this blind box was larger or more valuable than others.
To solve this problem, Ding Yun simply decided to make all subsequent blind boxes small boxes of the same size.
She wouldn't put physical items inside anymore.
Instead, she would put custom-made slips of paper. What was written on the paper would signify what the blind box contained, and it would be redeemed on the spot.
This way, when she opened for business, she could first sell a batch of blind boxes containing physical items. Once she gained some popularity, she could directly sell blind boxes containing only paper.
This would not only save trouble but also reduce potential issues.
It would prevent people from using their eyes or hands to estimate the value of the items inside the blind box.
After several days of such busy work, with the help of a few young girls she had hired, Ding Yun repackaged the three thousand two hundred blind boxes that could be sold as blind boxes from the five thousand blind boxes she had opened.
And the next day, she officially opened for business.
She held a firecracker ceremony and distributed flyers for her opening.
Her shop was named the "Curious and Strange Blind Box House."
This was a preparation for the future, in case she had too many unsold items that wouldn't fit in her storage ring and she had to sell them. After all, she had already stated that her shop's name was "Curious and Strange," so it would be normal and reasonable for the blind boxes to contain some unusual items in the future!
Of course, Ding Yun had no intention of selling those items now. For now, she would primarily sell normal, recognizable items to open up the market first.
As the firecrackers crackled and the sign was officially unveiled, people nearby who heard the commotion and those who received flyers out of curiosity flocked to the area. They pointed at the shop sign and the blind box descriptions Ding Yun had just displayed, discussing among themselves with surprise and curiosity.
That's right, no one entered the store.
They were all murmuring and discussing outside.
"What is this thing, a blind box?"
"Who would be so crazy to buy this? To buy something, you have to gamble, and you don't even know what you'll get. If you get something you don't like, wouldn't you lose out big time!"
"It seems to say that if you get something you don't like, you can return it at a discount, like 20% off!"
"Then I definitely can't buy it. If I return something I don't like, I'll still lose 20%. Am I crazy? When I buy something at other stores, as long as it's not damaged, I can return it at full price. What kind of greedy store is this? Let's go, let's go..."
"Buying a ten-yuan blind box, the item inside is worth at least ten yuan and at most twenty yuan. Is this true? Could it be a scam?"
"Who knows? What if there's only one twenty-yuan item among a pile of blind boxes, and the rest are ten yuan? Who has that much luck? If I have ten yuan, why wouldn't I just buy something I like directly instead of gambling here? Sigh, are they treating us like monkeys!"
"There are even household appliance blind boxes!"
"No, there are even transportation tool blind boxes! This blind box sells for a hundred yuan, and the worst you can get is a child's pedal bike, and the best is a bicycle!"
"What's a child's pedal bike?"
"One hundred yuan is too expensive! A used bicycle costs only a little over a hundred yuan now. Are they crazy!"
"Can you really get a TV from a household appliance blind box?"
"Has anyone tried it yet!"
...
As people continued to discuss, and Ding Yun occasionally offered explanations and invitations, some people felt it was a complete scam and left directly, while others thought it wouldn't hurt to watch the excitement. Still others felt that perhaps they could buy a cheap blind box to try it out and experience something new.
At this moment, the plant decoys Ding Yun had hired earlier became useful. Two people quickly stepped out from the crowd, each selecting a blind box, and then, with both nervousness and concern, began to open them.
Although Ding Yun had paid them, she had also made it clear that the money they received could only be used to buy blind boxes from the store, and they had to open them on the spot. The money they earned was truly the payment for their service, based on what they opened.
They didn't know what they would get inside.
They could only choose the type they wanted.
Then they nervously opened them.
One of the decoys took a ten-yuan food blind box, and the other took a ten-yuan children's toy blind box. What they opened were ten pounds of black pork and an electric car model, respectively.
Both were items worth more than ten yuan.
They were also very satisfied with this.
Then, with great interest, they took money from their pockets—not the money Ding Yun had given them, but their own—and bought another blind box of their choice to open.
With these two as the first to take the plunge, the remaining people who were already subtly tempted could no longer hold back and also began to choose items in the store.
Then, most of them were satisfied.
Those who got good items burst into excited laughter on the spot.
Although some people in this era had begun to pursue appearance and trends, the majority still focused on practicality and value for money. For similar items, such as clothing, most people were willing to buy cheaper, durable ones rather than fashionable ones.
As long as the price was right.
Differences in appearance were irrelevant.
Most of the items in Ding Yun's blind boxes were worth more than the selling price of the blind boxes. At least, the market price of the item was definitely higher than the price of the blind box, and they were already getting a price advantage. Whether the item from the blind box was exactly to their liking was no longer that important.
After all, a suitable price was a suitable price.
This was the purchasing philosophy of most people at that time.
As for the few who were not very satisfied.
This was mainly due to the following situations...
For example, someone bought a ten-yuan food blind box and happened to open some precious ingredients. A lucky person.
The value of one pound of snowflake beef was definitely more than five pounds of ordinary yellow beef. However, for many people at that time, they didn't care about snowflake beef or not; they wanted more quantity.
They would rather have five pounds of yellow beef, or ten pounds of pork, rather than one pound of snowflake beef.
There were also cases of clothes blind boxes yielding exquisite ancient costumes. If someone who liked Hanfu opened this decades later, they would be overjoyed. But the middle-aged woman who opened an ancient costume now only thought, "How can I wear this? It's not easy to alter it!"
Only the fabric was worth some money.
Fortunately, there were still people who recognized value on the spot. Those who opened items they didn't like could completely exchange them with each other as long as both parties agreed. Therefore, the number of people who actually returned items to Ding Yun was very small; most people did not return them.
Even if they didn't like it and couldn't exchange it for something they liked, they still didn't return it.
Because they felt that the value of the item they opened was definitely higher than the value of the blind box. If no one liked it, they could find ways to sell it elsewhere.
It was definitely more cost-effective than returning it to the store and losing 20%.
Ding Yun's blind box store.
It could be said that it became an instant hit.
In just a few days, her store was so popular that a group of people were opening blind boxes inside, and a group of people outside were showing each other the items they didn't like, to see if anyone was willing to exchange or purchase them.
It was incredibly lively and bustling.
Later, some people even bought blind boxes in bulk, opened them, and then took some of the rarer, harder-to-obtain items, such as electronic watches, to other cities to sell.
They could easily make over ten yuan with a single resale.
In summary, Ding Yun not only made her own business flourish but also drove some downstream individuals to earn money together, achieving common prosperity.
However, these people were only a minority.
After all, not many people dared to do this.
Ding Yun didn't care about this. She was only responsible for selling the goods. After selling them, she didn't care whether others kept them for personal use or took them out to sell.
In fact, the more they bought, the happier she was.
She considered herself the general agent, and others were regional agents, responsible for sales.
As the store's sales stabilized, Ding Yun was no longer as busy as before. Her main task each day was to open blind boxes, categorize them, and send the items that could be sold to the store. Then, the store staff would write the names of those items on slips of paper, fold them, and put them into the blind boxes of different categories.
One employee wrote the names, another folded the papers, and yet another employee put the slips into the blind boxes. While this couldn't completely prevent them from exploiting loopholes for their own benefit, it was somewhat effective.
Moreover, since the value difference of the items in the blind boxes was not large, and there was no situation where a ten-yuan blind box contained an item worth a thousand yuan, as long as they didn't go too far, Ding Yun would turn a blind eye.
She let them be.
After all, she didn't have the time to constantly supervise them.
During her leisure time, besides spending time with her daughter, she had many other things to do, such as processing and selling items that were difficult to put into blind boxes at a stall.
Another example was processing items that could be put into blind boxes to reduce the inventory pressure in her storage ring.
These two tasks really couldn't be outsourced.
For items like Crystal Ice Grass, how could she hire someone to process them? Although she could use exotic products to deceive people, she couldn't do it all the time, right? And how could these items be put into blind boxes to sell? Even after processing, they were difficult to put into blind boxes to sell, so she had to do it herself and sell them at a stall.
Items of this type all had to be handled this way.
As for items like Marshmallow Clouds, they could be processed slightly and then put into blind boxes.
However, such items.
They were rarely found in low-level blind boxes.
So the overall workload was not too great.
But even so, Ding Yun was still quite busy every day, so busy that sometimes she wanted to give up and wished she had just been a plagiarist. That would have been much easier. She wouldn't have to worry about whether the items she sold were unlabeled, nor would she have to worry about whether the items came from other worlds and were discovered. After all, no matter how strange the content of novels or manga was, it could easily be explained as her own rich imagination.
However, Ding Yun suppressed this thought.
Because the original owner also had an illiterate persona.
Suddenly being able to write novels would indeed be too abrupt.
To make things easier in the future, Ding Yun specifically carved out an hour from her already busy schedule to study with her daughter. She hoped to gradually shed the illiterate persona and make plans for the future to avoid too many discrepancies.
Fortunately, although Ding Yun was busy, it was not in vain. The daily income made her feel that her hard work was worthwhile.
However, it wasn't long before.
New problems arose.
That is, as more and more items were sold from the store, and more and more items could not be sold, her storage ring, with a total volume of only over two hundred cubic meters, became smaller and smaller. There was almost no space left to store the newly opened items that couldn't be sold.