"You can buy it, but it's 500,000 US dollars!" Huang He said with a smile.
"That's too expensive!" the boss exclaimed. "Your price is too outrageous."
"It's not expensive. Do you know how much I spent to get this full set of skins? It was a full 2 million RMB!" Huang He sighed, "You don't know how hard it is to get these deluxe versions. I almost emptied all the blind boxes in Shanghai to get the last few deluxe ones!"
"But even 2 million RMB is less than 300,000 US dollars, and you usually sell them for 500,000," the boss said.
"Are you stupid? Of course, it's because this account is a rare, out-of-print account!" Huang He argued logically. "Think about it, Series 1 and Series 2 are already discontinued. Although Series 2 still has some inventory, and some people are still selling them, they are decreasing day by day. And for the deluxe versions, they are one less each time they're sold!"
"Series 1 is even more incredible. It was discontinued in November last year. Now, on the entire Jiangnan Mall, only four or five shops still sell Series 1 blind boxes, and rumor has it that these blind boxes no longer contain rare items, mostly just common ones!"
"As for the unactivated Series 1 rare items, any single one in the Jiangnan Mall is priced at over 1000 yuan. The deluxe versions are even more remarkable, with the cheapest costing at least 100,000 yuan, because there's only one unredeemed deluxe version available for sale online."
"This deluxe version is for the Beastmen race. As for the Human, Elf, and Undead races, the deluxe versions are nowhere to be found for sale online. This is practically equivalent to being out of print."
"So, an account like mine, with all skins and all maps, will definitely become rarer and rarer. Since the previous series are discontinued, they will never be produced again. No matter how rich or how hard the newcomers try, they won't be able to obtain such an account."
"Do you think my account is expensive at 500,000 US dollars?" Huang He asked calmly. The boss nodded involuntarily, almost tempted to buy it.
However, upon realizing that he couldn't afford it unless he sold his house, he simply shut his mouth.
Many years later, this boss would regret not slapping himself multiple times whenever he recalled this incident. Because at that time, such an account with all skins, all maps, and all special effects had a latest auction price of an astonishing 15 million US dollars, and there were only 9 such accounts in the entire world, all held by top billionaires.
To maintain the value of these accounts, these top billionaires had to acquire all the blind boxes from each new series. Therefore, every six months, the price of these accounts would increase by tens of thousands of US dollars.
Naturally, the boss couldn't afford such an account. However, if he genuinely wanted to buy it, Huang He wouldn't mind selling it to him. After all, he could easily create a new account with all skins and special effects by manipulating the backend data.
Of course, this couldn't be done too often. Doing it once or twice would suffice; otherwise, the accounts themselves would lose their value.
However, after learning that Huang He spent 2 million to acquire this account, the boss knew that Huang He wouldn't be willing to work for him as a subordinate to transport goods, as he wouldn't care about such a small amount of money.
Meanwhile, Huang He also struck up conversations with the young men around him. When these individuals saw Huang He's account with all skins and all maps, they essentially treated him as a deity, answering all his questions.
Huang He soon learned that the most popular standalone game in the United States was indeed Warcraft III, and Battle.net remained the hottest online platform. However, the oo game center had already become the second-ranked online platform in the United States.
According to several nearby players, the Chinese server forum they frequented had over 300,000 registered players. They had also created more than 10 oo groups, each filled to its 500-person capacity.
Therefore, based on their estimations, there were at least 200,000 Americans playing on the Chinese server. While this number might seem large, as any online game with 200,000 users would be among the top 10 online games in North America, it also seemed small in comparison to the over 2 million Warcraft III players in the entire United States. The oo game platform was still only one-tenth the size of Battle.net.
However, considering that this was a foreign server and the network connection relied on undersea cables, this achievement was already very impressive.
Fortunately, there was no firewall at this time, which would have made things even more difficult.
On the other hand, as the number of American players on the Chinese server increased, the demand for Chinese blind boxes became even greater.
Or rather, these American players were themselves drawn to the Chinese server by the Chinese game blind boxes.
This was because Warcraft III, after being released for over a year, remained unchanged from its launch, which had bored many players.
Then they discovered that there was such an interesting server in China where game characters could transform into entirely different appearances based on various skins.
Even the equipment and buildings could have their skins changed, making Warcraft feel like StarCraft. This was incredibly fun, so a large number of players who were bored with Warcraft III but couldn't find an equally compelling game to replace it flocked to the Chinese server, playing there even with extremely high latency.
However, to overcome the latency issues, they had also devised their own methods.
For instance, they avoided playing PvP and focused solely on PvE, which eliminated any latency problems.
Another method was that American players, through concentrated efforts on the forums, occupied a southern region server on the oo game center.
This server was rumored to have the lowest latency among all servers, reaching a level that was barely playable, making it the preferred server for a large number of American players.
Moreover, since this server had a large number of American players, the opponents they were matched with were also mostly American players. Everyone was on the same latency starting line, thus miraculously achieving fair competition.
If you lag, I lag too. Playing games this way actually generated an unusual form of enjoyment, captivating many American players. It was quite remarkable.
At the same time, precisely because these players were attracted by the novel content on the Chinese server, each of them was bound to purchase items like skins. After all, why else would you come to the Chinese server, to be abused?
However, according to the agreement between Jiangnan Group and Blizzard, items from China were not allowed to be publicly sold in America. Therefore, America had been lacking official channels for game blind boxes, leading to the emergence of a large number of scalpers.
The first scalper had already profited during the previous Chinese finals, and now there were hundreds of such scalpers, the majority of whom were Chinese. They began purchasing blind boxes from China in bulk and then selling them in America.
However, since blind boxes would incur significant customs duties when imported directly, these individuals would either purchase the finished products obtained from the blind boxes online, or they would discard the boxes themselves. Through these methods, they could relatively cheaply transport the products to the United States, and then sell them to players through various shops.
Because these items were essentially illegal, these shops dared not sell them openly. They would only sell a batch quickly at a specific time on a certain day, making it difficult to find evidence.
In addition, there were reportedly specialized black markets where these items could be purchased anytime and anywhere if one dared to venture into the slums.
It was precisely because of these methods and restrictions that the current prices of blind boxes were simply astronomical.
Taking the previously mentioned prices as an example, according to these players, a common item cost $5, which was four times the original price.
A rare item commanded a price of up to $150, also four times the original price—this was calculated based on a 3% rarity rate.
Finally, the deluxe version, while its price varied significantly, never fell below $5,000.
In conclusion, these Americans were like predators, preying on their own compatriots as if they were fat sheep. These players, being generally quite wealthy, actually found these prices, while a bit steep, to be acceptable. Watching this, Huang He couldn't help but lick his lips.
Such excellent "leeks" – if he wasn't going to harvest them himself, he certainly couldn't let others do so.
With this thought, Huang He glanced at Leng Zhiruo and found her licking her lips as well. Indeed, they were a couple; they were thinking along the same lines.
"Actually, it wasn't this popular initially, but it's been exceptionally hot these past few days!" the boss interjected. Since Huang He wasn't going to steal his business, he didn't mind chatting freely.
"Why?" Leng Zhiruo asked curiously.
"Isn't it because of the fifteen maps in the third series?" a player chimed in. "I never imagined Warcraft III could be played like this. Those maps are incredibly fun, especially the one called 'Heavy Mountains, Heavy Obstacles.' The first time I played it, I spent a full 48 hours. My mom got so scared that she pointed a gun at me and told me to go to sleep!"
"Nonsense, defending Athens is the most fun map."
"No, the best is Thermopylae. My 300 Spartans can hold out until level 120!"
The players suddenly started arguing. These were all among the fifteen special maps released in the third series, created by Jiangnan Games for Warcraft III.
"Hey, I think you're all arguing because you only have redemption codes for a few maps!" a voice commented, causing everyone to feel a bit awkward.
"There's nothing we can do about it. There's only this much stock in the entire United States. If China opened stores here and sold them without limit, I'd buy them all out!" one player declared boastfully, hitting the table, but also expressing his frustration.
It wasn't that he didn't want to buy; he simply couldn't get his hands on them.