The sellers themselves are.RoboFlonne wrote:You have to work and love the cels you want. There is a very clear line where sellers can't cross if they want to make money.
Sellers also have Japanese bidders as well, and ebay fees.
No one's answered. Who's more evil the japanese bidder or the sellers?
Would it make a difference if a japanese bidder won it and you never saw it again?
There's often times a great divide between the way we as a community collect cels compared to the japanese collectors. Most don't even share their goods. a LOT don't ever want these to leave Japan or be seen by anyone outside of Japan. It's part of the way they collect under their culture and you cannot hate them for that...It's wrong...despite how much it differs from our collecting habits.
Sure...We get mad...But it's going to someone who has the same passion as the rest of us, but with different perceptions on the "community" and sharing.
When I see someone buy a mediocre Eva cel for $150 and turn around and try to sell it for $799...I just think:
"O gawd..."
Roll my eyes, and move on.
But, what comes into play is that a lot of times there are collectors who have a love for that particular cel, and a passion. Wanting to add it to their collection. Then, someone purely in it for profit step in and outbids them just to turn around and resell it for an outrageous amount.
That is what gets me. an honest collector who would of loved the cel to it's very core was outbid by someone "trying" to make a profit. And a profit of a ludicrous amount, WAY beyond market value. I click on some autions with those prices expecting to see some very decent stuff...But then I see a crappy small image, line fading, etc...And I go...
WTF
That's just angering. But, as I've said before, companies have to make a profit, but those selling high priced items can only go so far with their customers willing to pay that amount.
Anime Link has incredible things. Things I would buy if I had the money. some things are inflated, but that's just b/c ppl will pay that amount of money. usually at cons. They have so many incredible...And I do mean *INCREDBLE* things they show at cons that you never see on their website. Thoise things sell, and then in turn hike up the price of us e-commerce folks. Once they don't sell at that price, it's logical that the price will drop, or they have "SALES"...YAY!
Others, like Curt, sell for a very decent price, and have incredible goods to boot.
Then, others, like AH, don't seem to take any of the above into account and just try and gouge the life out of your wallet.
I have respect for Link and Asylum, and many other dealers for what they do. But then there's some who I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole b/c they seem to have no care for the "collector". The passion behind collecting. The meaning. In my opinion, businesses like Asylum and Link have been in business for years, and will be for years to come b/c of their great business sense.
Others will eventually fall. The same thing happened with Aloha Anime. They had the same pricing scheme until their end. And where are they now........?
