Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 626 The Secret of the Bait

My uncle in Shenzhen was stunned when he received the call. A huge fortune had just fallen into his lap like that?

I just got off QQ last year, and now I'm back on Alibaba.

Although the shareholding is smaller, it is highly regarded in the industry; 1.35% of the shares can accomplish a lot.

He could only urgently contact Mr. Wang, the general manager of the battery company, and another major shareholder for a brief conference call.

The meeting concluded that they had to accept the offer; it was only a little over five million, and the company had plenty of cash in its accounts.

Furthermore, the reward for Qin Dahe has also been announced.

On May 10th, a Taobao website was launched, listing fishing tackle companies from 001 to 009, with all their fishing gear available for customers to choose from.

However, Taobao now has very few promotional resources and a pitifully small number of orders.

Besides these nine fishing tackle companies, there are no other businesses. Time is too tight, and there hasn't been enough time to recruit more businesses over there.

Qin Dahe's side hasn't started negotiations yet; the packaging change and online orders haven't started either. Everything has to wait until the share transfer is completed.

On the 17th, Qin Dahe received a call from his uncle informing him that the share transfer was completed and that he had successfully acquired 0.25 options from the investment company.

In terms of valuation, Wushang Capital is actually higher than Alibaba.

These 0.25 options are worth nearly two million, but considering all his bonuses from the first half of the year, he bought them at a low price.

If we calculate it that way, he indirectly holds 0.00003% of Alibaba's shares.

Then nine fishing tackle manufacturers started labeling the bags. It's too late to change the packaging bags now; stickers are more convenient. The next batch will have the outer packaging with the Taobao logo.

Online orders poured in like snowflakes. Not only the fishing tackle shop, but Qin Dahe himself also helped promote the business on Baidu Tieba and forums, attracting some individual customers to try online shopping.

Meanwhile, Dahe Fishing Tackle established an e-commerce department, currently headed by accountant Xiao Zhang, who also hired a high school student as his assistant to handle customer service—one person per department.

The main task is to send individual customer orders to the corresponding agents or fishing tackle shops; local delivery is the fastest way.

As for those fishing tackle shop orders, most of them are fake orders (orders placed under false pretenses). The average order value on Taobao is too high, so how could they possibly wholesale through Taobao?

The amount is fine as long as it's around that amount. The wholesale method is still the same as before: place the order by phone and then enter the transfer code into the website.

Fishing tackle shops that don't know how to do it aren't forced to; as long as the intention is there, it's fine, creating a false sense of prosperity.

However, this false prosperity was quite effective. A wave of merchants moved in at the end of May, and then the number of individual customers began to increase.

When there are many products available, these individual internet users will also try to make a purchase.

The most impressive thing is that there are three fishing tackle shops on the homepage. This was promised by Jack Ma. No matter how the website changes, there must be three fishing tackle shops on the homepage this year, and everyone will take turns appearing on it.

The negotiation with other fishing tackle shops went so smoothly, but the price Qin Dahe paid was the 1.0 version of three things: silver carp and bighead carp bait, medicinal wine, and commercial bait.

Dahe Fishing Tackle offers a maximum of two flavors for each type of bait to avoid internal brand competition and prevent customers from having doubts about their purchases.

However, other flavors also work for fishing. With the basic version available, everyone can add their own flavors based on their own abilities.

The presence of pig feed concentrate in commercial bait, ethyl maltol in silver carp and bighead carp bait, and eugenol in medicinal wine made everyone suddenly realize the truth.

This scoundrel is really good at hiding things. It's been three years and no one has discovered that he actually uses these things.

The main reason is that it's hard to imagine that pig feed, food additives, and chemicals can all be used for fishing.

Furthermore, the excessive amounts of granulated sugar and MSG powder in commercial baits are quite baffling, making it seem like cooking. While many commercial bait brands use similar MSG formulas, very few are as effective as those from Dahe Fishing Tackle.

After the information was made public, each company added their own flavors, and the baits began to be rapidly iterated.

This is exactly the effect Qin Dahe wanted: to bring the competition for bait to the chemical level ahead of time, allowing for a period of chaotic competition before the government bans it.

After the fishing ban, anglers will really suffer. Wild anglers will have to compete for territory with electric anglers and net anglers, and they will have to outwit and outmaneuver fishery authorities. When it comes to avoiding poison gas, Taiwanese anglers will always be at the back.

In this lifetime, everyone should enjoy a few years of fine food and catch lots of big fish, and have a good time for a while.

At the same time, through this incident, Dahe Fishing Tackle confirmed its status as the leader in the bait market. When Da Liu led his team to the competition, everyone treated him with great respect.

Qin Dahe did not get bogged down in the debate over bait flavors, but instead focused on conducting in-depth research based on his own flavor profile.

Assuming the quality is guaranteed, over time, word-of-mouth will be the key to success.

Who can guarantee that they won't reduce their usage of a certain raw material if the price of that material rises sharply?

He dares to do it.

Dahe bait is more expensive than others. When the raw materials are expensive, we continue to raise the price; when they are cheap, we lower the price. With high-quality ingredients, anglers will naturally trust you over time.

Meanwhile, a dark blue fishing rod quietly appeared on the shelves of most fishing tackle shops.

On June 1st, the fishing rod that I had been working on for over a month was finally completed.

The Qinglongyin No. 1 fishing rod is available in three lengths: 7.2 meters, 8.1 meters, and 9 meters, priced at 420, 580, and 780 respectively.

Made of composite materials, with carbon fiber as the main material, 700 units were sold in three days after its launch, and subsequent orders are still being fulfilled.

Because everyone recognizes the effectiveness of silver carp and bighead carp bait, as a professional manufacturer of silver carp and bighead carp bait, everyone thought that the fishing rods must also be good.

It has both waist strength and flexibility; the only problem is that it's heavy.

It's 7.2 meters long and weighs 370 grams, uh, almost 8 ounces.

However, since high-quality carbon fiber cloth is not available now, this is the only design option to maintain the desired tone.

According to calculations, selling 1200 pieces can cover the losses in the design, selling 1500 pieces can barely generate a profit, and for each piece sold, Dahe Fishing Gear can earn a net profit of 150 yuan.

With the reputation of silver carp and bighead carp bait already established, making money is not difficult, but how much to make is hard to say.

The price is simply too high; people's current spending power can't keep up.

The Qinglongyin No. 2 will not be launched until next year, and the fishing rod will continue to be optimized. In other words, even if problems are found with the fishing rod now, the production line will not be changed.

Every design costs a lot of money. Mold making, production, practical testing, and rework—if this process is repeated several times, a year's profit will be wiped out.

Master Yuan couldn't let him be idle. Since fishing for silver carp and bighead carp wasn't profitable, he had to find a profitable project to keep him busy.

Qin Dahe set his sights on crucian carp rods, specifically portable ones with sections no longer than 50 centimeters, the kind that could be folded up and put in a pocket.

Designing this kind of fishing rod is very time-consuming, but the cost is not much. Fishing for crucian carp does not require much tensile strength, so there is no need to make molds frequently.

Designers are prone to going bald because there are so many sections, and they have to be detailed and aesthetically pleasing—it's a nightmare!

(End of this chapter)