Buying to Resell

[zerospace]

Honestly, I have never understood the stigma about reselling. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

If you have ever been on the receiving end of it, you'd understand. I've sold to a notorious reseller of stuff that appears on both Mandarake and YJ auctions who is also, supposedly, a collector. Not even a week later, I found those same items listed on eBay at 2-3 times what the reseller paid me for them. It's annoying as hell, and I told him never to even attempt to buy anything from me ever again. I refuse to sell to him and anyone else whom I see employing similar tactics. Buying from auction sites and reselling is less horrible, IMHO, than doing it to a fellow collector.

I must say, I agree with Drac, 100% on this issue. I can't say it any better, so I won't even try .

[star-phoenix]

For me, seeing people buy and then resell, or what-not, never really bothered me. If the price is marked up (and I have seen cels with even 10 times mark-up), I just don't do business with them. I understand how it can be super annoying. But, honestly, in the grand scheme of things, this has always been a fun hobby for me, and that is all that ever mattered to me. With the profession I am in for my work, I have to see tragedy on a daily basis. So, it is so hard to get worked up over someone buying and then reselling a cel. I just feel neutral about it all.

[kamidake]

Don't think I have anything else to add to this topic that haven't already been said. But I just wanted to say that this is the kind of discussion I've been missing and I'm glad I decided to poke my head back in.

[jcaliff]

I agree that it's about intent and how often it happens. One thing that used to drive me nuts (and we don't see as often lately thank goodness) was the people who tried to create markets that didn't exist. Someone who had a relatively big name in the hobby would, for example, buy a huge lot of cels from a series that had almost no interest, play up how awesome the cels were and how much they loved their collection, and then turn around and sell them for, honestly, much more than they were worth. Then rinse and repeat with a different series while the first series market died and the people who bought the cels (who were, in general, newbies) got stuck with cels they couldn't even try to resell later for anything approaching what they bought them for.

I think that burned a few people who were new to the hobby, and that kind of thing makes me angry because it hurts the people the hobby needs in order for it to grow. Of course, now that there aren't a lot of huge lots of new artwork coming out any more it's less likely to happen now.

[Gonzai]

I admit that there are many times that I will buy lots and resell some of the items.
I just did this recently on a big batch of items, and I am failrly certain that the
buyer was quite happy with the purchase. In my case, there are certain items
in a lot that I really want, so I am willing to buy the lot in order to get those said
items. Then I will sell off other ones that I didn't want so much to help fund the
purchase of the ones that I did want. Big difference, I usually take a pretty good
hit on these and sell them for much less than I paid.

I don't see a problem with buying lots nd reselling some of the items as long as
you are not trying to make a killing, and actually, if you can make a killing, more
power to you. I just prefer not to take advantage. Guess it is not in my nature.
Maybe that is why I am so broke all the time. >_<

[cutiebunny]

I have nothing against dealers, those who buy batches for a couple items or those that sell items from their personal collections. As others have mentioned, dealers have connections and sometimes spend a lot of their time traveling overseas to mantain them. Dealers, generally speaking, don't buy things off YJ or Mandarake, only to resell them at twice the price the following week. I've bought several cels before from a sequence and have ended up reselling a couple because I wanted a particular scene or a key cel.

The three practices that have been mentioned - the "Outbid on Japanese auction sites to resell on E-bay for 2-3x the price a week later", "splitting & individually reselling sketches from a complete cut" and "Buying from 'emergency sales' to resell on E-bay a week later" - all frustrate me. It's sad when you see buyers paying these sometimes absurd amounts simply because they're not aware that there's any better or cheaper alternative out there. I recall attending the SakuraCon 2011 Charity Auction and was surprised that a freebie-type Usagi cel I donated that was signed by her Japanese seiyuu ended up selling for some crazy amount. The winner of the cel, a US voice actress, was sitting by me and remarked how difficult and rare cels were to find nowadays. I don't know how prevalent this kind of thinking is, but it doesn't give me much faith when someone in the anime business believes this to be true.

I also don't like it when people pretend to collect only to use their gallery or their presence at a convention as a way of generating more sales. Creating a page on a site dedicated to collectors only to put your collection for sale with a significant mark-up seems wrong to me. If these "collectors" want to advertise their collections for the purpose of resale, they should create a separate website to do so. I also feel the same way about people who choose to be friendly with you in the hope that you'll give them some inside to special deals that they'll post on E-bay the following week.

I guess it just really boils down to the intent. Did you buy the sketch or cel solely to resell at a mark-up or did you buy it and then, for whatever reason, posted it on E-bay? With 99% of all people in this hobby, if they resell items from their collection, it's for legitimate reasons.

[pixie_princess]

Information on Anime Cels doesn't seem to be very common knowledge though... One con I went to I had my cel signed by her Japanese Voice actress. She really liked the cel and had been interested in cels but did not know where to find ones from that specific show. Had I known it ahead of time, I would have brought another cel (akin to Cutie's donated cel) with me to give her as a gift. As it was, I told her of several places (via the interpreter) so I hope that she has found her dream cel.

As for reselling it really depends on the situation. Its only the "buying with the intent to immediately sell within 4 weeks of purchase" situation that bugs me. Buying up affordable cels by the boatload with no interest in anything else other than making money by making everything more expensive is a bit distasteful. As a result I choose not to purchase most of the time from these resellers. Dealers are another matter entirely though

The folks who are slowly liquidating their collection are fine, the folks who decide to stop collecting and sell it all in one swoop... thats fine too. I'm fine with bi annual culling of the herds, and the immediate sell off of unwanted cels that are purchased in a lot where the buyer only wants a couple or so.

I don't lose any sleep at night over this, but it does make for a neat little discussion

[star-phoenix]

Definitely an interesting topic for discussion.

[sugarcels]

I personally do not purchase cels just so I can resell them. However, I have purchased a cel lot because I wanted one or two cels from the set. In that case I try to sell the cels I do not want, as I know they will be appreciated elsewhere.

Pokemon cels are annoyingly rare, so I get very angry when I suspect that a price has been jacked up. A few years ago I saw an auction end on Yahoo! Japan, and a couple of weeks later the cel showed up on Ebay marked up about 50% more. I was tempted to contact the seller but held off.

Another problem that I don't think is mentioned here is Japanese sellers who believe they can mess with North American buyers. I've seen cels on Yahoo for 1,000 yen, and at the same time it shows up on Ebay for $80. It's like they assume they can gouge foreign collectors, and I don't know why