Cels Forum

Well. . . I agree with you completely where you say that if
there's someone out there willing to pay more then you are,
and thus that person makes a higher bid, you should try to
just say "darn it" and move on with life.

But you said something I need to comment to. . . The point
of bidding on an auction is *NOT* to bid as high as you
possible can afford to just to "keep the other guy from
getting the item". That's definitely not the point and
actually sounds a bit more like a form of revenge. When you
bid on an auction, your bid should be for what you believe
the item to be worth. I fully back Melissa because she
wanted that cel and put in a bid for what the cel was worth
to her. If she had simply put in the highest bid that she
could possibly afford just "to keep the other guy from getting the item", I would be currently scorning her too - but she didn't do that.

In response to other posts regarding driving up the prices
in Japan. . . Well, if someone can order from a Japanese
site, I think it's perfectly their perogative to do so. Just
to give an example: If someone likes character X and cels
of character X cost $100 each in the US, why is it so
terrible for them to bid $50 on a cel of character X from
Japan even though that cel would normally only go for about
$30 if there were no US bidders? Skipping the auction and
buying the cel of character X for $100 from a US dealer
isn't going to improve the prices. . . When that dealer
returns to Japan, they'll look harder **AND PAY MORE** for
cels of character X because they know the cels will sell.
So the prices will rise either way, the only difference is
in what the end collector pays for them.

Also where auctions are concerned - keep in mind, that even
if someone bid $1000 for a cel on a Japanese site, no one
will ever know how much the bid is unless someone else
quite possibly another *Japanese* fan) is bidding that much
too. . . (*wry smile*) Like eBay, Yahoo does proxy bidding.
No matter if the high bidder's maximum is $1000, their
final bid will still be only one little increment over what
someone else was willing to pay. . . Food for thought.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac