Over the past few days, many street vendors that sell rare and unique antique items have been appearing on the streets of Can Tho City, which has drawn many people to examine and purchase the items.
 |
| A giant Zippo lighter and normal-size ones. |
 |
| Buddhist and other statues for sale. |
As observed by DTiNews reporters, it is not certain whether these street vendors are selling authentic antiques. A wide variety of objects were displayed on the street and the most noticeable thing was a giant Zippo lighter. The lighter is 20 centimetres tall and has a value of VND 500,000 (26 USD). The body of this huge Zippo lighter was engraved with a "Viet Nam - Tay Ninh 73 - 74" line and a Vietnamese map with the names of all big cities and provinces.
The other 8 normal-size Zippo lighters, each had a rare design that seemed quite antique and ranged from VND 150,000 - 200,000 (7 - 10 USD).
Besides the lighters, many Buddhist statues, made from bronze, were being sold in different sizes. The largest was 40 centimetres tall and weighed from 4 - 5 kilograms and was selling for VND 3 million (156 USD). Some were only a little larger than a human finger and being sold at a price of VND 100,000 (5.2 USD).
Other common antique items, such as coins, watches, tools and more interestingly, even spectacular lenses, were also on display for sale.
"S", a street vendor on Cach Mang Thang 8 Road shared that all of his antique items have decent origins and come from Thailand. These items were brought to Vietnam by tourists. When asked for proof of origin, none of these street vendors could provide us with any.
It was reported that these street vendors displayed their items for sale from 7-9am and 4-6pm everyday. These items would be all placed out on a canvas piece, making it convenient for them to run when the police appear.
"M", another antique-selling street vendor said, "The customers who come to our place are quite experienced, so we have to place a really high price on the item because they will bargain it down. We can only make a profit of VND 10,000 - 15,000 (50 - 80 cents USD) for every item and a total of VND 100,000 (5 USD) per day. If we get caught by the police, we will completely lose everything."