hello pezz, today's report:
(i) i retrieved the sapphires from jeweller friend who had exibited the rocks at the hk jewelry show for the past 7 days so as to help our mutual buddy to unload. no takers. jewller reported that he did no more than 20k of biz over the 7 days, down from his usual by 95%. he reports that there were about 10 folks looking to pilfer design ideas for every 500 meters of display frontage at the show. iow, it was a doom and gloom show where they might as well been displaying coffins.
(ii) as promised my bk buddy who is already in debt to a bunch of his friends including yours truly, and where we collectively must close our lending window, i took the rocks off his hands at 30% discount from his 1996 purchasing price. i told him i am not interested in owning the rocks, and i have some coloured rocks for sale should he be interested. rocks are consumption, not investment.
i also info-ed buddy that he can have his rocks back at any juncture as long as they are still in my immediate family's possession, and the terms of exchange would be so many troy ounces of gold plus so many troy ounces of platinum, arrived at by allocating the 1996 purchase price 50/50 into gold and platinum at current spot price.
(iii) i am heading to europe in a dozen hours, will be back in hk sunday. i will speak to a bunch of industrialists and bankers and investment managers. i will report back on the gloomy news when able.
cheers, tj
p.s. so many people in hk have asked me about the merit of subscribing to the hsbc rights offer to existing shareholders, and so many folks i know had subscribed, making clear to me that the regret is not yet genuine, and seeking for redemption not yet sincere. |
