[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 227: Auctions

The first buyer turned out to be a sentimentalist. He wanted to purchase the Mark II Eternal Edition for himself and not for any business purposes. Evidently, he had a lot of money to spare.

Ves had the feeling the man earned his money through less than legal means. His name turned up very few records and the details he provided about himself hardly illuminated his life.

No matter what, a sale was a sale and the man possessed enough legal standing to sign a contract.

The first sale opened the floodgates. After a couple of more potential buyers tried the mechs first-hand in a virtual environment, they became sold to the idea of owning the mech.

Their backgrounds ranged from retired mercenary commanders to well-off business owners. Ves soon reached his daily quota of ten Mark II's sold in the next couple of hours.

Once the quota had been met, most potential customers that came afterwards expressed regret for arriving too late. Many of them had visited his booth earlier and mentally dismissed his designs as overpriced, but once they heard how his Mark II caught fire they came back too late.

Antje smiled with satisfaction at the sight. "Herd mentality is at work now. Your Mark II Eternal Edition has turned into a must-own design. If nothing goes wrong, most of these latecomers will be back tomorrow."

"Hopefully they'll still be in a rush after a good night's sleep. I'd hate to see them lose their drive to purchase my mechs after they had some time to reflect." Ves remarked. "Herd mentality only works as long as there's momentum propelling them forward."

Ten Marc Antony Mark II Eternal Edition mechs represented around 400 million credits in value! If Ves sold out for the next three days, he'd make over 1.2 billion credits in revenue alone! After deducting all of his expenses, he'd still end up with roughly a third of that incredible sum, enough to fill up his current shortfall.

"It will be better if my Caesar Augustus start getting sold as well."

Many potential customers still shied away from the Caesar Augustus Eternal Edition. Its intimidating price tag of 80 million credits sounded a bit too ludicrous even for enthusiasts. The ability to make a direct comparison between the Eternal Edition and the original model hurt a lot. They could get an original Caesar Augustus for well under 60 million credits, after all!

Maybe Ves had been a little bit too greedy for charging a 20 million credit premium on an intangible benefit. If nobody pointed out the design's excellent X-Factor, how could his potential customers not feel scammed if they decided to purchase a model?

At least the Mark II benefited from not having a direct comparison. While unmech variants of the Caesar Augustus existed, their specs different substantially from each other. The Mark II also acquitted itself well if someone compared its specs to those other variants that lacked compressed armor.

Once the first day of the festival transitioned to the evening, the events in the main hall started amping up. While many visitors left the side halls to join the festivities, many more guests arrived from elsewhere who found the press of the crowd intimidating. The side halls received plenty of fresh faces, and the number of people who congregated around his booth never diminished.

Every sales representative focused on pushing the Caesar Augustus. Despite setting a daily quota of three mechs, the fish simply refused to take the bait. Ves began to grow more concerned. His happiness for selling out the Mark II aside, he'd miss out on a lot of lost opportunities if his more expensive product line did poorly.

After a while, Antje came back to him after getting a pulse of his well-heeled crowd.

"There are still people who are eying the Caesar Augustus." She began. "Yet they're holding back due to their price. Their willingness to buy is pretty high, but not high enough to justify 80 million credits. Worse, they know that others are holding the same doubts. I think they've reached a tacit agreement to wait out your resolve."