Does anyone else cringe when they see this?

[zerospace]

And no one likes being told what to do with their stuff.

I don't think anyone suggested that.

[majinuub]

I never understood this, as all you're doing is pissing off your potential customers by marking them up way over their market value .

[star-phoenix]

I am more curious to see if they actually sell the cels for those asking prices. I understand how frustrating it is to see that especially when you wanted the pieces and were outbid. But, I am sure you bid as high as you felt they were worth. So, if this person feels they can try to resell them for those markup, I frankly say good luck. I really doubt he/she would.

[LWK]

This guys been a huge pain in my ass to. Same story. Cels I lost to him in auction are up on Ebay now, selling for 199$ and one is like 279$ None of them are worth that. It's just amazing. These people are even more protected from outside view due to YJ's new 'ID number system'..
The worst thing is I collect from ONE SERIES. So like, I have no fall back, if someone buys one of his cels, and it creates some kind of trend, it could completely shut me out of the hobby, cause he may start bidding higher. It's a mess.. I just am not paying no 200$ each for cels worth like 10-40 bucks. Fuck that. If you literally scalp people by outbidding them in japan, and then shut the door on them by forcing them to be foolish by paying you off, you are a jerk.

Ebay is so full of scummy behavior and price back rubbing idiocy, especially from the outside person who charges bin prices in real life situations using ebay bin's as a reference, it creates this idea that there is more demand or value then exists, then the demand begins because it attracts attention, and then it just takes off, even if the entire value is predicated on a assumption based lie!

I am more curious to see if they actually sell the cels for those asking prices. I understand how frustrating it is to see that especially when you wanted the pieces and were outbid. But, I am sure you bid as high as you felt they were worth. So, if this person feels they can try to resell them for those markup, I frankly say good luck. I really doubt he/she would.

The problem is that the option exists, and if one idiot pulls the trigger, it has the potential to crash down on all of us. Even worse if that idiot emails him asking for specifics. He recently sold two cels he ALSO outbid me on. Now I have to worry about this for even random stuff I collect from Fatal Fury. I hate ebay to death. I hate how it protects the very greedy, and imposes its own systems and stuff to HELP the greedy get more money out of everything, no matter who it harms. Price trending is a disaster for the hunt. Fellow collector beats you, whatever. If this guy beats me it enrages a disgusting sense of entitlement from me, because I hate the fact someone with zero love or passion for the art, or even the memories that make it special, OWNS it, and probably for good, because those prices are disgusting. It just becomes a entirely frustrating experience. He's never beating me on Krauser anything. Seriously, he comes near those and starts his baby incremental crap, I'll crush him on the larger bid.

[cutiebunny]

Ebay is so full of scummy behavior and price back rubbing idiocy, especially from the outside person who charges bin prices in real life situations using ebay bin's as a reference, it creates this idea that there is more demand or value then exists, then the demand begins because it attracts attention, and then it just takes off, even if the entire value is predicated on a assumption based lie!

It's not just E-bay that's full of scummy behavior. The convention world is too.

Let me tell you a little story of what went down at SakuraCon this past weekend. Funimation brought in three Studio Wit guests. One of them, an animation director for Owari no Seraph, Ayumi Yamada, tweeted that she donated two sketches to be sold at the charity auction. SakuraCon's charity auctions benefit Make-A-Wish.

I noticed, on Twitter, that Yamada had donated two sketches to the auction. I was really looking forward to bidding on them. Except that these sketches never appeared. I sat through the entire auction and Yamada's artwork never showed up.

Here's a screenshot of her tweet - http://imageshack.com/a/img924/60/Lp5AiX.png

I immediately asked SakuraCon staff regarding the whereabouts of these sketches. No response. I've asked Funimation, even posting on their Escaflowne Kickstarter page, and there's been 0 response. Even a "we're investigating the matter" token reply would have been appreciated. Instead, it appears that Funimation feels that if it ignores it long enough, the problem will go away.

I won't buy anything more from Funimation until they properly resolve this. I know this sort of shady behavior goes on at conventions all the time, but damn, to tell an artist that she'll be helping needy kids by drawing only to pocket it for the company's glory wall is shady AF.

[LWK]

Wow, that's just creepy level greed. Who really knows. I wonder if they sold them under the table for a extremely high price early in and just decided to go with that or something. Any other cool stories of humanity at its finest?

[Jadeduo]

This is stupid because the money spent on original art on auction at Sakura-con this year prolly topped at least 10k... never mind whatever else they had. I was there with them this year and there was a distinct lack of art from what I hear in comparison to the years before. In fact the year before they raised over 40k for Make a Wish!

We also posted to twitter, a friend did it in Japanese I retweeted the english and tagged Yamada-sensei... This is prolly one of the shadiest things I have ever encountered and I am ashamed of them.

[cutiebunny]

While I'm well aware that these sketches will never be returned nor will Funimation acknowledge that they're in their possession, I am hoping to see Funi's relationship with Studio Wit (Yamada's studio) sour. This is the sort of deceitful stuff that the Japanese abhor, and with Wit now knowing what occurred, they might be less likely to do business with them and instead, release further material under other distributors instead.

I wonder if they sold them under the table for a extremely high price early in and just decided to go with that or something.

No, one of two things likely occurred. The first is that these sketches will be mounted on their glory wall. Most US distributors, such as VIZ, and conventions, like Anime Expo, have one of these in their corporate office. Artwork created for the charity auction has been known to pop up on these walls; A colored Haruhi Suzumiya sketch drawn by Noizi Ito for the Anime Expo charity auction disappeared and ended up on their glory wall. The second option is that the sketches were given to a Funimation sponsor. SakuraCon is deeply protective of its relationship with Make-A-Wish and the last thing they would want to do is to steal something explicitly donated to their auction. Given Funimation's silence on the matter, I'm more likely to say that they took it for their office. Which is sad because you have a company that views additions to its wall as more important than the wish of a child who has been through hospital hell. With the extra $150K they raised past their goal on their Escaflowne Kickstarter, Funimation could have easily sat in the same room I did during the charity auction and won those sketches. There was no way that any of us in that room would have dropped even $5K each on those sketches.

Any other cool stories of humanity at its finest?

I have several, but I'm pretty verbose and it would just be a wall of text that no one wants to read. I am happy to see that a couple of people have been blasting Funimation with the sketch inquiry. I am really grateful that Yamada sent that tweet out because I would have never known nor had any proof of those sketches otherwise.

[zerospace]

Wow... this thread is OLD! (And this seller is, of course, still at the same *&#$% game).

That's one seriously crappy story, CB. Makes me want to never support Funimation again, ever. I hate shady crap like that, especially by a company that owns so many US anime licenses. Ugh.

Honestly, I spend more money on tech than cels anymore, so even though this jerk on eBay still ticks me off, I don't dwell too much on it, even when he outbids me on YJ or Mandarake. I haven't actually bought a cel in probably at least a year now (wow... actually writing that is kinda scary... it's really been that long). I have, however, bought a new phone, laptop/tablet hybrid, and built a new gaming computer in the past 5-6 months. Eeek!