Anime-Haven -Outbidding Collectors on YJ to Sell on Ebay @*&

iwakuralain16 · Post by **iwakuralain16** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:35 am

I have never once bought from this seller. And now that I know what they do, I will never in the future. I refuse to pay people who do this to fans that actually collect the series.

Yes, I know this is common. Xeno explained this to me already. but that still does not make it Right and it still does not make me any less pissed!

I bidded on these auctions on YJ. I should have won them if it wasnt for this seller.
http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d67964912 http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/96603873

I fell asleep, as usual. didnt have time to rebid.

I check out ebay for Ceres cels, and look what has appeard on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Anime-AYASHI-NO-CER ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Anime-AYASHI-NO-CER ... dZViewItem

I wasn't too upset about losing the auctions, just because I have seen that buyer before and knew they were a collector. or so I thought. I am PISSED. Stealing away cels from someone who is an actual collector to just to turn around and sell them on ebay.

Has anyone else had this happen to them??? >_>

kira · Post by **kira** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:43 am

ah, so i was right in who that yj name belonged to.

redwolf · Post by **redwolf** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:59 am

I haven't had this happen to me yet, but if it did, it would be my own fault for either not putting in my max bid (knowing I was probably going to miss the end of the auction) or not being around at the end to counterbid. I've slept through auctions and forgotten or completely messed up while noting ending dates, and all those times I blamed myself. It shouldn't matter what the winner does with the item...it's theirs to frame, resell, use as a placemat, cut up into little acetate figures, etc...

I think your first reaction was the best. AnC cels are fairly available, so that's fifty+ dollars (with deputy fees & shipping) you probably put towards something else. You have plenty of better cels in your gallery, too.

kira wrote:ah, so i was right in who that yj name belonged to.

So they aren't a little known deputy?

Makes sense, since I outbid them on my Azumanga Daioh set last April (and very glad I did because it's not a set that would fare well to being split up).

iwakuralain16 · Post by **iwakuralain16** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:19 am

yeah... ive calmed down. i was so PISSED though. I called them out on it though. sent them a message via ebay.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:32 am

Don't worry, I totally understand, I've refused to buy from one seller, purely cause he did this...as all he was doing was pushing up the prices for me (and other collectors), buying a load of cels from one seller and then just re-selling them on eBay...I didn't see what the point was (apart from trying to make money of course)! The thing is, is that no-one ever bidded on his auctions, as he had no idea on pricing cels. But like you I was just being bitter and angry for missing out to someone who just wanted to make a quick buck. Sorry to hear it's happened to you though...but least you've still got a chance to own the cel...even though it's a complete kick in the nuts. It really just gets to me, as it needlessly drives the prices of cels up…I know its wrong to be annoyed, but it still bugs me!

Cheer up iwakuralain for all is not lost!!

Cjmixers · Post by **Cjmixers** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:36 am

It happened to me when I first started collecting.
I found a japanese web site that had an inu yasha cel, and I brought it for $500.
Then someone told me about anime-haven.

I saw the same cel and contacted them and asked them why they were selling my cel since it was shipped and paid for already and the seller just needed time to take it off the site. They put something on the site stating that the item is no longer available and told me they were sorry.

Not only do they sell items they don't even have, but they tried to sell it for $950.... That is why they take so long to ship. They have to get the items from the dealer in Japan first.

Needless to say I have never and will never buy anything from them.

Im so sorry about the cels you wanted

iwakuralain16 · Post by **iwakuralain16** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:42 am

That is the second one from that sequence the seller has put up. I am sure another one will come along. I already have one from the Kei sequence, i just liked that cel better. lol The Tooya one... hopefully another one will come up soon. ~_~ Maybe i can get my deputy to e-mail the seller and ask. haha

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:20 am

Unfortunately, it's common in a hobby like this, and there are a few other Dealers that are absolutely notorious for this behaviour- buying and reselling at ridiculous mark-ups, and sometimes selling items that aren't even in their posession yet. For the most part, I try not to do business with these people, but every once in awhile, if they do accquire something you want really, really badly, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and have dealings with them.

My most irksome moments have involved a fellow collector on RS no less, and they have managed to piss me off ( and several other collectors ) numerous times by claiming every cel they see is a wishlist item, keeping it for less than a week, and then throwing it on ebay and watching people bid war it hundreds of dollars over what they originally paid. They have also sold the same cel to two different people, collected the money from both people, and then lying to one of them about it 'being lost in the mail' and 'no refunds'.

So anyway, this person had a cel on hold at Anime Game ( home of the 5 year payment plans ) for a long time....a looooooonnnnnnngggggggggg time. The cel was $250 and I wasn't fast enough to order it when it was originally posted. Well, this certain collector had it on a payment plan for almost a year and a half. I finally contacted Anime Game and basically said, look, I really want this cel, I was the second in line to order it, it had been on hold for a year and a half, I am willing to pay the entire amount UP FRONT, and not drag it out for years like this person was obviously doing. However, they said no can do, and that they were very flexible with their payment plans, so this person could pay any amount over any period of time. I monitored this person's gallery, and interestingly enough, other cels kept getting posted as new purchases to their gallery, and then being resold on ebay- so how come it was so difficult for them to pay towards this one they had on payment plan?

Almost 2 years later, this person finally paid off this cel, and it was updated to their Rubberslug Gallery....for 3 days. Then it was slapped on ebay, where it sold for somewhere around $600.

It still irks me to this day because now cels from that sequence are on Dealer's sites for as much as $800. And myself or someone else who really wanted it and would have enjoyed it would have easily paid the $250 to Anime Game in a heartbeat. It's great that they are so flexible since a lot of people have a hard time coming up with the money for cels, but it does give far too much ground to abusers, unfortunately.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent, but my story was to basicly say that this kind of stuff goes on, unfortunately. It's just one of those unpleasantries that comes with being in a hobby where there are collectors, there is money to be made.

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:53 am

Animegame recently posted that they will no longer offer to hold cels with payment plans. This is likely because the collector you mentioned and a handful of others abused the dealer's generosity.

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:26 am

It happens all the time. ALL the time. I don't like it much (ok, I don't like it at all

) but... the dollar usually wins out over anything else.

Yep, I don't mind finding the cel I lost out on in a fellow collector's gallery. But finding them up on ebay or on a dealer site grinds me the wrong way. And yet, it's entirely within their rights to do that.

We don't have to be happy about it, though

Moop · Post by **Moop** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:57 am

iwakuralain16 wrote:I called them out on it though. sent them a message via ebay.

Not sure whether you know this or not, but they have a site through which you can contact them directly: http://www.anime-haven.net

It's an annoying practice, but understandable, I suppose; the dealers who do it are simply trying to keep their businesses afloat. And just to play devil's advocate, there are a surprising number of collectors who don't have a clue that there are Japanese auction sites available for deputy bidding, so at least this affords them an opportunity they would not have had otherwise. On the other hand... the markup on those AnC cels is completely absurd.

Moop · Post by **Moop** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:07 am

This was actually an accidental double post (I didn't know those were even possible, anymore!), but I'll use the space to add that Anime-Link, whose X cels you were admiring, also buys on YJ. You may find yourself avoiding a lot of dealers if that is your criterion for boycott.

sailorsv13 · Post by **sailorsv13** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:27 am

I'm sorry to hear about this. I wanted to purchase something from Anime-Haven's site that is waaay over priced and has been listed for years yet they would not come down in price? Oh well.

As for people who do this sort of thing. I agree that it is wrong. Actually I have a bigger problem with "collectors" doing it rather than dealers as it is no suprise if a dealer does stupid things like that...and actually it makes me happy in a sick sort of way to see their cels NEVER getting purchased at those high prices ^.^ But so called "collectors" who do this get a gallery on rubberslug and disguise themselves as a fellow cel collector who just wants to have a nice gallery....next thing you know they go from 10 to 1,000 cels in a year, make it their business to stay online all day and night to buy the new cels that pop up that they know their fellow collectors would want to pay more money for...and then they price it even higher than their fellow collectors are willing to pay! I indulged this only once just to get my desired cel out of this "collector's" hands, yet it would take a toll on my wallet to buy all of the cels that I could have got for less. Just like Maiko's story about Anime Game I guess. It is sad

Maybe we real collectors should just suck it up like these scammers do and stay up all day and night on the internet with dealer's email addresses already typed out so that we can nab those desired cels at the exact moment of update ^.^

~ Bri ~

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:56 pm

Shameful. Especially jacking the price up like that.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:00 pm

I don't like what they are doing!

but I can sympathize(sp?)...

Partly because of my monthly donation to Ebay...

And it's still going up! The problem is Ebay has no competition.