Are SAILORPALS for REAL?!

Zag · Post by **Zag** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:08 am

I notice a lot of the cels that sailorpals is offering on eBay are
cels that were on Mandrake, and they're turning around and
selling them on eBay for almost twice the price.
... what's up with that?

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/se ... 3308122616
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ranma-1-2-Original- ... dZViewItem

sailorpals says "It has been stored carefully in my album at home."
.... for what 2 days?

I dunno, I always thought their prices were rediculous, now I'll never buy from them. : (

SME · Post by **SME** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:16 am

I'm going to say it's totally just for profit. I guess they don't realize that many of us have access to YJ, Japanese sites and Mandarake, so I guess they think they can go ahead and make a profit on it on Ebay. I'm not really surprised I guess, but that's what I think.

They did that with a few Sailor Moon cels, hence why I never bid on any of them. *shrugs* Kinda sucks that they do that, but I guess there is no way to stop it.

Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:31 am

They are straight up profit site. They started out doing Sailor Moon cards. I was around when the started up. And let me tell you it's not just that one series nor that one cel but all of their items all the time.

Jelenity~

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:26 am

I've always wondered about them and I've come pretty close to bidding on a few of their auctions.

Post by **JWR** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:59 am

I have bid and won ebay auctions from Sailorpals and had no problem with them.

As with most cel dealers , they buy them and attempt to resell them at a profit. To me it makes not difference if they buy them from Mandarake auctions or directly in Japan from dealers.
Bottom line , we all have the chance to bid against them on the Mandarake auctions, If they win and then put them up on ebay you have the choice to bid or not.

Goldknight · Post by **Goldknight** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:41 pm

I contacted them once about a couple auctions because they had three cel lots. The reserve and starting prices were insane so I contacted them at the end of the auctions asking if they would sell one of the cels that were in the lot....totally unrelated characters and scenes mind you. They refused and were pretty snotty about it. I was shocked. Their auctions at the time didn't get a single bid.

tex-chan · Post by **tex-chan** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:01 pm

I've had the same experience as JWR. I've bid on a couple of their IY auctions, which had what I thought were reasonable starting bids. And, I was lucky enough to get both items on which I was bidding for what I considered really low prices (especially taking into account the insanity that can be IY collecting these days). I think one cel ended for just under $50, and the other ended for just under $30.

They (Sailorpals) were very nice in my dealings with them, and I received my cels really quickly after paying for them. In all, I considered it a pretty good transaction.

If I saw another auction of theirs that had a reasonable opening bid, or that was what I consider a "good" price ... I would bid with them again.

ReiTheJelly · Post by **ReiTheJelly** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:39 pm

I believe that Sailorpals is a member of A-B, so it's probably best not to say too much about it.

But yes, I've noticed that the cel collecting community in general is very against re-sale for profit. I know that I've immediately resold items in the past, but only if they arrived and were not what I expected...

cutiebunny · Post by **cutiebunny** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 2:16 pm

I am rather neutral when it comes to Sailorpals.

I, too, was around when Sailorpals mainly sold Sailormoon cards. But, when too many competitor sellers enterred the market(and when the card prices plummetted), they began to branch out to different items.

Once again, it depends on how much you want an item. As a big collector of Japanese SM promo cards, I did use their services a few times to find missing cards that I needed to complete sets. However, once I gainned access to deputy services, I no longer required their services.

However, I do find that the shipping costs are too high. My experience with Sailorpals is that you not only pay for your shipping, but for the shipping of the item from Japan to Sailorpals. Therefore, what would normally cost $2 to send in the US will run you about $8. Considering that most of the items they sell are 2-3x higher than one could get on a deputy service(even when figuring in comission, exchange rates, etc.), it is a tad outrageous.

As a seller, I generally add the cost of the shippment of the item to the item's price when I sell it. I find that charging for double shipping or being very preferential on the types of payment that I accept is bad for business.

klet · Post by **klet** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:03 pm

I've bought stuff off them before . . . my most expensive item was around $35, so I don't think they were making much of a profit off of it . . . of course, if they were, I want to know where they were buying their cels.