Chapter 95 - For Sale #2
Maybe their hydraulic cutter if they had one.
Potentially finishing equipment.
Assets.
Not business.
Very clear.
I asked for the owner's number.
The technician gave it.
I called that afternoon.
A man answered.
"Hello?"
"Good afternoon. This is Lia Ramos. I was referred by Carlo, technician for your production printer."
"Oh. Yes."
"I heard you're selling some equipment."
Pause.
"Yes."
"What units?"
He listed them.
Two production printers.
One older monochrome production machine.
Hydraulic paper cutter.
Perfect binder.
Creaser.
Heavy-duty laminator.
Paper drill.
Some finishing tables.
Computers.
Shelving.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
I wrote everything down.
"How old is the hydraulic cutter?"
He answered.
"Service records?"
"Some."
"Blade replacement?"
He knew.
Good.
"Can I inspect?"
"Yes."
Then—
"If you're interested, we're also selling the business."
I stopped writing.
"No."
Immediate.
The man laughed slightly.
"Okay."
"Equipment only."
"That's fine."
Good.
Clean.
Simple.
I scheduled the inspection.
I went two days later with Rina.
Not because I needed emotional support.
Because she actually understood our production workflow and would notice practical things I might ignore while looking at specifications.
The print shop occupied a larger space than ours.
Older.
Not terrible.
Just tired.
That was my first impression.
Faded signage.
Reception counter.
Samples on walls.
Stacks of paper.
Machines.
People working.
Not dead.
That surprised me.
Closing businesses in stories looked abandoned.
Real businesses could be failing while still producing orders at ten in the morning.
Employees still came in.
Customers still called.
Machines still ran.
Bills still arrived.
Failure was often very operational.
The owner introduced himself as Mr. Villanueva.
Late fifties, maybe.
Tired face.
Polite.
Not desperate.
He walked us through the equipment.
The first production printer was decent.
High click count.
Maintained.
The second was better.
That one interested me.
Hydraulic cutter?
Very interesting.
Perfect binder?
Potentially.
I asked questions.
A lot.
Rina inspected workflow around the machines.
Then I noticed something.
Finished jobs were stacked in three different places.
No clear dispatch staging.
Paper inventory was mixed.
Several open boxes of the same stock.
I saw two staff members searching for something.
One asked another.
Then another.
Nobody knew immediately.
Not my business.
I looked away.
We reached the office.
Mr. Villanueva pulled out service records.
Good.
Then invoices.
Not requested.
I frowned.
"These are for the machine?"
"Some."
I looked.
Customer invoices.
Open receivables.
Why was he showing me receivables?
"I'm only looking at equipment."
"I know."
He sat across from me.
"But if you buy several machines, maybe better to consider everything."
"No."
He smiled faintly.
"You haven't seen the price."
"Not relevant."
Rina looked at me.
She knew that tone.
Done.
Except—
Mr. Villanueva slid a sheet across the desk.
Asking price for assets.
Then below it—
asking price for the entire operating business.
I looked despite myself.
Mistake.
The whole business price was not dramatically higher than the equipment package.
That was suspicious.
Very suspicious.
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why is the business only this much above asset value?"
He leaned back.
"Because I want out."
"That doesn't answer the question."
He sighed.
Good.
Now we were talking.
Sales had declined.
Not collapsed.
Declined.
Margins worse.
Corporate clients slower to pay.
Staff costs higher.
Rent increased.
Machines financed at bad times.
Some loans remained.
They had lost two large accounts over the previous eighteen months.
One because of price.
One because of repeated late delivery.
Cash flow had become ugly.
He had started using customer deposits from new jobs to finish old ones.
There.
Danger.
Not necessarily fraud.
But dangerous.
Classic cash-flow spiral.
"What are your gross margins?"
He hesitated.
Bad sign.
"Depends."
"Average?"
Another hesitation.
Worse.
"What do you allocate for machine cost?"
He looked at me.
"Machine cost?"
Oh no.
I should have left.
Instead I asked—
"Pricing. How do you calculate?"
He explained.
Paper.
Ink estimate.
Labor sometimes.
Then markup.
Flat.
Mostly based on competitor price.
I stared.
Rina did not move beside me.
Good employee.
Professional.
Inside, I could feel my brain doing something dangerous.
No.
"What about waste?"
"Included na."
"Where?"
He pointed vaguely at markup.
No.
"Overhead?"
"Kasama."
"Where?"
Same answer.
No.
"Machine depreciation?"
He laughed slightly.
"Bayad naman na karamihan."
Fuck.
There.
I felt it.
The sentence.
The one I hated.
Machine already paid.
As though rollers became immortal after final payment.
As though maintenance stopped existing.
As though replacement capital would descend from heaven.
I looked at the financial summaries again.
No.
Not my problem.
I was here for a printer.
Then I saw the receivables aging.
A lot older than they should have been.
"How much of this is collectible?"
Mr. Villanueva frowned.
"Most."
"That wasn't my question."
He looked at me.
"Maybe eighty percent."
"No."
He looked surprised.
I pointed.
"This account is one hundred eighty days."