What kind of deal did they make with the Russians?
They weren't very clear
sharelol, really late, but I wanna chip in on this board
Richard (Martin Short) and Michael (Tim Allen) had a ton of coffee beans at the time that Michael arrived on the island. Tim Allen noticed that the price of coffee went up since they bought the beans, so he told Richard to sell, but forgot to confirm because he was busy with Patricia, and then his laptop battery died. Richard didn't sell because Michael didn't confirm, which Michael was ready to kill him for (LOL).
Anyways, the price of coffee then went down-- drastically-- and they were desperate to find someone foolish, desperate, or brave enough to buy literally tons of coffee beans for more than what they cost on the market.
They sold them to the Russians for 85 cents a pound, when on the market they were 83 cents a pound (why the Russians took the deal, I still don't know-- I suppose they thought they could make a profit since there was at least a semi-good chance the price of coffee would rise).
Anyways, the Russians wanted a guarantee that the price wouldn't drop below 75 cents a pound, which Richard gave them, against Michael's behest. The price dropped WAY below 75 after the Russians bought the beans, and, fearing for their life, Richard and Michael gave the Russians back all their money in exchange for all the beans. The Russians were suspicious, since Michael and Richard would lose money buy giving them a refund, but they took the deal anyway.
After that, the price of coffee SOARED. Absolutely went through the roof. The Russians NOW think that Richard and Michael screwed them over when they bought the beans back (i.e., cheated them out of the profit the Russians could have made if they had kept the beans, since the coffee price went up), so the big bald guy brings his goons to Richard's house to get the certificates and basically re-re-do the deal, only by force this time.
Then the big home invasion scene, etc., etc., everybody comes out unharmed, happily ever after, roll credits, blah blah blah
<_< lol
>_> I like to write. A lot.
Just to add to that, the reason the Russians bought the coffee was because they wanted to launder the money. (Hence why they paid in cash.)
All very silly of course, any real trader would have just sold the coffee at the market price and learned his lesson (don't try to trade from an island 3000 miles away from civilization), rather than hold on to the coffee and risk losing more.