The antique collector (AC) successfully dodged his sure financial demise when he followed the casino’s card dealer sound advice. “Huwag ka ng babalik dito”. AC turned his back from his gambling addiction and just focused on his business of antique collecting and selling.
According to AC, his luck turned after he met the showbiz couple Donna Villa and Carlo J. Caparaz who was into buying and selling houses at that time. In a span of one year, Donna Villa had bought 1.6M pesos worth of crystal chandeliers which were used to decorate the houses they were selling. AC used that money to grow his business. He lost na kasi his puhunan to the casinos. The couple’s buyers were celebrities, businessmen, politicians. AC told me CS bought a big house for singer P. I asked why would Mr. CS give her a house? He said that the house was 84M ten years ago. P still lives there according to him. I asked how did he know for sure? His maid is a friend of P’s maid.
Those who bought houses from Donna Villa and Carlo Caparas also became clients of AC. They bought expensive European decors. Those who visited their beautiful houses got inspired and they too became clients of AC. He was able to slowly recover what he had lost in gambling.
He showed me a photo of a woman, maybe in mid 40s, whom he said recently bought an intricate commode from him for P850,000. She also bought several Italian and French-made decors to decorate her newly built house in Quezon City. The P1.6M she paid, AC spent all in jewelry. He showed me some photos of his collection.
I told him he should have a vault. Wala daw syang vault. Nakakalat lang daw sa bahay nya.
Pumunta nga tayo sa kanila at magwalis-walis tayo.
By the way, Did you see the news about this stock brokerage employee who squandered 750M from the company he worked for? When asked what he did with the money, he said “Half B natalo sa casino”. Nakilabutan ako the way he said Half-B. Dyos ko 500,000,000 pesos— HALF BILLION, ganun-ganun lang na ipinatalo nya sa casino, kasi hindi nya pera, ninakaw lang nya. Perang hindi nya pinaghirapan. Kung ang pera ay iyong pinaghihirapan, naghahanapbuhay ka ng matino, hindi mo itatapon ng ganun sa casino.
