Mislistings - your favourite bargain

[Koneko Koji]

I've been collecting for a very long time now (it's rapidly approaching 10 years ) and in that time, a few auctions have come up under the wrong name and i've dove for them - a couple have turned out to be wrong in the end, but most have been what I thought they were.

My favourites:

Transforming Kouryuu:


The seller had put it (and it's two sequence mates) in seperate lots - each with a low end Petshop of Horrors cel - I still think I might be slightly sad to take one look at one chubby arm and go "OMG I'd recognise that arm anywhere!" ... especially when I'd not seen the Wish video before. Yes, I know it's my latest Wish cels - which means I bought the others all without seeing it - I was going through my - Must get EVERYTHING from CLAMP phase ... which just has X TV, RG Veda and CLAMP in Wonderland to go! (I've got XXXHolic, Kobato and Chobits to load up - and I don't count LoR as CLAMP since they only did the art not the story as well).

OVA Dotta-chan:



I found this auction when looking through a seller's other auctions to see if there was anything else I wanted - the seller had it listed as Hyper Police - and although I've not seen that show, I look at this cel and I can only see Dotta coming in to do her speech ... I really hope I'm not wrong about this one! XD

[Keropi]

I've seen mislabled cels and sketches, but I don't remember ever getting those items for myself. There was a Refrain Blue cel mislabled over at Anime Chaos, but it was sold by the time I seen it. Other mislabeled cels I seen were from shows I wasn't too interested in.

I used to tell online dealers about mislabled items, but after awhile I started not getting replies back. Often they would thank me, but the cel's name would never change on their site.

Once I told a dealer at Anime Expo about a mislabeled cel in their cel folder, but they might have thought I was trying to be a smart ass or something. They ignored me and looked off in the other direction. It wasn't like there was anyone else standing in front of them. I said it twice.

I think they were having an off-day or something. Usually I just don't say anything anymore.

[dark-water-dragon]

I don't know if you would count this as mislabeling, but I got a really good price on an opening cel I don't think the seller knew was an opening cel.

I would also tell the seller if I knew them or had done business with them before. It also sucks when someone has posted things on ebay in the wrong place and if you did not go to there other items section you would never know they were there.

[ReiTheJelly]

While I'm happy if I happen to spot the mislabeled cel, in general I'm not a fan. It means I have to search twice as hard, if I want to find *all* the cels from series I collect. And I just don't have that kind of time, anymore.


It is especially hard on Yahoo!Japan, where I am not familiar with every variation possible...

[LLslickD]

I'd say it all depends whether or not your the one who comes across it and wants it lol. I have found one of my cels this way as it was a character in disguise which is for all of about 5 seconds. I was happy

[beatrush]

I usually try to tell the seller they have mislabelled a cel....... most of the time.....

Im sure we are all guilty of this though

[graymouser]

I have come across this at dealer sites. I used to let them know, but since I never heard back and nothing changed, I stopped. It's not worth the trouble if they do not seem to care.

Due to my very limited Japanese I rarely catch them on YJ. Most of the ones I catch are typos/misspellings or ones labeled as unknown. Those have turned out fairly well since I was able to get a rare LU cel and Jubei-chan cel that way. I was able to get both at cheap prices (the LU cel was $250) with no competition.

[duotrouble]

If I see cels mislabeled on ebay, I always tell the seller. I've always received a friendly reply for doing so too regardless of whether they updated their auction or not.

My best deals have been from misc listings. The sellers don't seem to care what they are. They just want them gone and cheaply.

[Keropi]

I don't run across many sketches on YJ that are mislabeled per se.

If anything, they might be labeled as "unknown show", but that's about it. I rarely run across wrong guesses for them. The older show sketches though I wouldn't be able to recognize. So heck if I know if those sketches are labeled properly or not.

[kizu]

If it's a collector then I tell them that it's mislabeled but I've stopped this practice since I hardly got any replies. If it's a dealer, I don't say anything. I mean they should know what they're selling if they're making a living off it.

[klet]

I once bought a cel from a popular show that was mislabeled as a cel from an older, not-so-popular show. It was super cheap--like, $10 or $15 or something.

When I discovered how incredibly expensive cels were from that series, though, I never bought another one, and eventually sold the first for a rather steep profit.

[Killua]

I didn't go for it because I felt a little guilty about it, but I once saw a Disney cel with the master background and the seller had no idea what it was. It ended up going for a little over $40. I regret now a little bit not going for it...

The cel was from the movie Oliver & Company.

[sugarcels]

I've come across mislabeled cels on Ebay, but unfortunately not for any series that I personally collect, darnit I've yet to see one on Y!J, although something may have been labeled "unknown" instead of some wacky, incorrect name.

[anruiukimi]

I usually will say something if I see a mislabel, but it's pretty rare these days, and I generally don't want to say anything unless I'm 100% positive. ^^; I caught a Cyber Formula cel being listed as an unknown on Ebay earlier this week and emailed the seller, but that's the only one I can think of lately. xD

[star-phoenix]

I have sen a number of mislabeled cels and drawings, and not in the "positive" side.
One website is selling a Chuck Jones sketch from a VERY famous Bug Bunny cartoon. They listed it under (and advertise it as) "Original Production Art". I thought the price was rather "fishy" even though it was still $2000. $2000 for a Bug Bunny drawing is expensive, but not for this particular sequence if it was original. So, I decided to ask. Turns out it was NOT original production, but a publicity drawing done AFTER the film was released in 1959. So, they labeled it as original production, but it was just a publicity REproduction, and who knows how many drawings they made of that particular shot.

One time, I found a HUGE dream cel on Ebay the owner mislabeled and had no idea what it was. I asked her some questions in order to confirm it was indeed an original. Then, she asked me what I knew about the cel. I did the mistake of being very honest with her on it, and that ultimately led to her pulling the auction and refusing to sell the cel to me for the bid I placed, because she felt she can get double what I had bid for. Never saw that cel again.

On a positive experience, I found one of my HUGE dream cels from Lady and Tramp that was kind of mislabeled. The owner knew it was some sort of a cel, but had no idea it was an original production cel fromt eh Bella Norte scene. So, I ended up with a GREAT deal on that one!
http://starphoenix.rubberslug.com/galle ... mID=307220