I don't post here all that often, but I'm feeling 
the need to throw in my .02 about the little 
debate that's been going on about reselling cels 
at a profit.

I was involved with the comic book / sports card 
market quite some time ago, and it was (and still 
is) common practice to buy "collectibles" with 
the hope that you can resell them later at a 
profit. The same goes for antiques, memorabillia, 
or any other collectible. Collecting includes 
buying and selling (except for those with 
unlimited funds, I suppose...)

Now, in the late 80s, speculation reached a peak 
in the sports card market. Many cards were 
grossly overvalued due to speculators fueling the 
demand by buying up huge chunks of the supply. 
Quite a few people made gobs of money. But when 
the speculators dumped their stock and ran, it 
was the collectors who had paid these over-
inflated prices that took the hit. The market 
crashed, so to speak, as values fell to more 
reasonable levels.  

The same thing happened with comic books a few 
years later in the early 90s. I had customers who 
would buy 2 copies of every book, one to keep and 
one to sell later if the value increased. Then 
the speculators dumped and fled, and the bottom 
fell out of that market.

(As a sidenote, eBay and professional grading 
services have caused a comperable inflation in 
both these markets right now..)

The point is, if you're still with me, that 
collecting is a balance of two things: 1) love 
for a hobby and 2) commercial interest. Another 
way of saying that is: everything has a price. 
I've been collecting cels for less than a year 
(I've previously collected a variety of other 
things). Though I can't ever imagine selling some 
of my cels, I'm sure I would if I got the right 
offer. I'm sure most of the people in this forum 
would do the same.

But the debate that's been going on is 
about "dealers" (or "speculators") who buy 
something to then quickly resell at a profit. 
This is called retail, people. Every store you go 
to makes between 20-90% profit on everything you 
buy- the grocery store, Home Depot, bookstores 
(there's a whole 'nother lecture about them, 
though) and so on. The idea that these people 
are "depriving" the true collectors of these 
items is ridiculous. They had the venture capital 
to pay a higher price on YJ, and it's their 
perogative to keep or resell their purchase as 
they see fit.

What all this griping amounts to is sour grapes. 
When people get outbid, they get angry (I know, 
I've been there). But no amount of griping is 
going to change the fact that buying something 
and immediately reselling it not illegal, and not 
even really unethical. It may upset you, but 
there's not really anything wrong with it. If a 
cel is too much, don't buy it.  If you don't like 
a seller's practices, don't buy from them. And 
it's fine to complain if you missed out on a cel 
you wanted, but don't criticize the person who 
bought it or sold it. 

I could go on about this, but I'll save it for 
the replies.

Cheers,

SP