Sure buying something simple to resell for profit 
isn't illegal, but as for the unethical part, 
only if you consider greed unethical. Comeon, 
there are shades of grey in the issue --  buying 
a set and then selling the cels you weren't 
interested is an example -- but we all know when 
people are being greedy. 

Saying a person with a series of auctions is a 
part of retail, is like saying a man running a 
garage store is a storekeeper. Stores mark things 
up, but they also have expenses -- rent, workers, 
utilities, taxes, product (nothing's for free). 
With respect to huge bookstores, the net profit 
is 3% -- they make money through the volume they 
sell. When you start a business or run a 
franchise, it takes five years to pay off 
franchise fees. Grocery stores have to account 
for product that goes unsold and is rotten. 
There's a popular bakery near my house which 
fills one huge dumpster with stale rolls and 
goods each day. Cel dealers fly to Japan and have 
website fees they have to pay for. When someone 
buys a $200 cel and it goes for $3000 -- the 
Ryoko zero cel as an example -- other than 
product, shipping, and auction fees, the rest of 
the money's pure profit and it's a hell of a lot 
more than 3%.  

As for saying our complaints are sour grapes is 
silly. You've already shown that such behaviour --
 call it for what it is SPECULATION -- ruins 
markets. As you've said, the card and comic book 
market were destroyed because of it. In my 
hometown, there were five sport card store. Now 
there are none -- not even comic book stores 
carry them. The lowest circulation numbers in 
comic books was 100 000, now the top selling 
comic books are lucky if they reach that number. 
As for collectors, people were stuck holding 
merchandise that they paid hundreds for, only to 
see the bottom fall out and see some of it become 
absolutely worthless. The mark-ups in both 
markets were ARTIFICAL -- the result of rampant 
speculation. People paid more only because they 
thought they would get more. Eventually this 
stops being true. Now, everytime someone 
complains about people taking cels from a 
dealer's site or YJ only to resell, I can't help 
but wonder how much of the price I pay for cels 
is because of them. 

(To be cotinued -- whether you like it or 
not. :) )