Reborn in America: I Have an Equipment Slot

He waved to several strong black men to help carry four Maxim machine guns into the store.

After the others left, Marissa began to examine the four machine guns more closely.

"Owen, these machine guns look pretty good. Are they really unusable?"

"It really doesn't work anymore." Owen found the safe and saw a thick wad of US dollars inside. He immediately smiled. "But I didn't say it couldn't be repaired."

Marissa's lips twitched.

Seeing Irving's appearance, Marissa immediately understood what a shrewd businessman really was!

"These four machine guns, can each really sell for $15000?" Marissa gently poked the wheel of the machine gun in front of her, somewhat skeptical.

"If you don't believe me, just ask anyone on any collectors' website," Owen said dismissively, waving his hand.

After putting the cash away, Irving's attention was completely focused on the shiny items on the shelf.

Irving found a ladder and climbed to the top of the shelf.

What comes into view is an exquisite balance scale made of pure silver, with a delicate and symmetrical structure, and a warm luster under the light.

Although it appears to have an extremely simple structure, consisting of only a central pillar, a balancing beam, and a pair of suspended circular trays, the elegant and mysterious patterns carved on the base and the beautiful structural lines immediately reveal it to be a valuable antique.

The instant his fingers touched the silver scales, a "ding" sound suddenly popped into his mind:

"Equipment detected: [Ancient Silver Scales], equip?"

Sure enough, Owen's eyes lit up when he discovered that the silver scales in front of him were a special piece of equipment.

He was about to equip himself when he suddenly heard Marissa's exclamation.

"Oh my god! Someone actually wants this piece of junk!"

Marissa looked up at Owen, her face beaming with excitement. "Kid, I just posted pictures and videos of these four Maxim machine guns on this weird website I logged into on my tablet, and I can't believe a buyer offered $60,000 for them!"

"Four 19th-century German Maxim machine guns for $60,000? That's a bit low..." Irving shook his head, recalling the price he'd found on the tablet.

"That's not low! I bought it for $36,000 and can make $25,000 profit by reselling it! This deal is equivalent to three or four months of my salary." Marissa exclaimed with emotion.

He now understood why his ex-husband John, despite coming from an ordinary family, was able to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few years.

It turns out that the pawnshop business can actually be very profitable.

She originally thought that this kind of small business of buying low and selling high was about making money by luck.

In retrospect, pawnshops were indeed a good business.

Thinking of this, Marissa suddenly felt a pang of regret.

However, thinking about her public school interview in two days, she suppressed her inner impulse.

Compared to the pawnshop business, having a stable job and becoming a legitimate American citizen is the best choice.

Two hours later, Marissa successfully waited for the buyer to take away the four Maxim machine guns, completed the handover procedures, and agreed on the information for paying the final payment. She left without looking back.

Seeing Marissa get into the car and disappear at the end of the road, Owen finally breathed a sigh of relief, having finally completed the handover procedures.

Contrary to Irving's expectations, American pawn shops, though they sound like pawn shops, are actually more like secondhand stores.

In the United States, the secondhand culture is very popular, which has led to a thriving pawnshop business.

The John's Pawnshop that he had just taken over from Marissa was practically a small shop.

The warehouse contained all sorts of random things.

There are all sorts of tools and secondhand items, such as lawnmowers, children's bicycles, lawnmower blowers, nail guns, etc.

On the contrary, the number of various antiques and collectibles is extremely small.

This left Irving somewhat disappointed.

However, Irving quickly rallied.

Although the pawnshop's vault didn't have many antiques and collectibles, he could focus on that aspect of the business after taking over the pawnshop.

After regaining his composure, Irving did not hesitate and immediately climbed the ladder to take the silver balance scales off the shelf.

"Equipment detected: [Ancient Silver Scales], equip?"

Looking at the prompt in front of him, Irving didn't hesitate this time and chose "Yes"!

The equipment information popped up immediately the next second.

Equipped item: Ancient Silver Scales

Grade: ★★.

Equipment effect: Grants appraisal (proficiency).

Note: This is a prized possession of the famous 18th-century merchant Samuel Russell, made entirely of pure silver, and is extremely valuable! When equipped, without being influenced by intuition, you can permanently gain the equipment's additional effect by successfully and accurately estimating the value of any item ten times. Progress: [1/10]

[Estimation]: You can estimate the approximate value of any item (Proficiency 1/10000)

Owen's eyes lit up as he looked at the equipment's additional effects described on the panel.

Just when I'm feeling sleepy, here's a pillow!

If I can acquire the skill of "appraisal", I will definitely be able to make a fortune by running a pawn shop.

Just as Irving stood there grinning foolishly.

Ring ring—

The pawnshop door was pushed open.

A middle-aged, overweight man with a full beard walked in.

Upon seeing guests arrive, Irving quickly took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Hey, buddy, good morning!" The middle-aged man walked up to the counter and greeted him with a fist bump.

Irving immediately bumped fists with the other man, beaming, "Good morning, buddy. What would you like to order?"

"I'm here to sell something." The fat man with a full beard slowly placed the black canvas bag on the counter, and finally took out an exquisite wooden box from it.

When Irving saw the antique-style wooden box held in the other person's hands, his eyes immediately lit up!

If he wasn't mistaken, judging from this wooden box alone, the chubby white man was definitely not selling anything ordinary.

Seeing that Irving was interested, the fat man immediately opened the square wooden box and took out an exquisite lotus-shaped porcelain bowl.

It looks like Qing Dynasty porcelain, and it even seems to be from an official kiln.

WTF?! Isn't this an antique?!

Irving was shocked, but it took him a moment to realize that this was America, where there was no such thing as cultural relics; everything was a collectible.

As long as you have money, you can buy and sell anything, not just cultural relics, but even Emperor Qianlong's jade seal.

The chubby man confidently introduced, "This porcelain bowl is an imperial porcelain piece used by Emperor Qianlong in 1735. It has great collectible value on the market. I have done my research and know that your pawn shop also needs to make a profit, so I would like to sell it for $10000."

"$10000?" Irving raised an eyebrow slightly.

Although the price is a bit high, if this porcelain bowl is genuine, it might actually be worth the price.

Irving neither agreed nor made a offer.

Just to be on the safe side, he picked up the porcelain bowl and carefully examined it.

But when he saw the prominent characters "Jiajing" at the bottom of the bowl, Irving's brain instantly went blank.

Wait a minute, "Made in the Jiajing Reign of the Ming Dynasty"??