I have nothing against people selling cels from 
their own personal collection. I mean, haven't we 
all bought something -- and like getting drunk in 
a karoke bar -- woken up the next day to regret 
what we've done?  

People can do whatever they want with the cels 
they have, short of using them to create their 
own twisted anime show -- but I'm still a little 
weary of speculators -- the chapter on Tulipmania 
in Extraordinary Dillusion and the Madness of 
Crowds will scare you about the potential of how 
far these things can go. The only problem is that 
it's impossible to do anything about THEM. You 
can only protect yourself and try to help others. 
I honestly believe that your heart's probably in 
the right place k. (Ugh! I wish I knew someone 
like you when I first got into comic collecting, 
so I wouldn't have been the neighbourhood mark.)  

I do believe there's a difference between profit 
and greed, but there's a fine line -- although 
comeon, putting a reserve or setting an opening 
bid that's 200% or more of your costs is really 
toeing it.   

If this helps, people exploiting a market 
eventually get their own in time. People invested 
in tulips, only to find that the prices weren't 
going to go up forever, and became bankrupt. Seen 
this happen in comics and sports cards -- lots of 
shops went belly up, the only ones that survived 
were the ones which actually gave a damn about 
their product. There is only so far the market 
can bare -- prices can only continue to go up if 
the supply is small or if there is a steady 
influx of individuals going into it. Since there 
is a lot of anime cels out there, and a fixed 
population (comeone, not everyone in this 
planet's going to go anime mad), prices will 
level out. 

As for auctions in general -- I'm starting to 
have to two feelings about them. There is such 
things as stupid money -- I'm talking about 
something someone's willing to pour a lot of 
money in because it's their dream item. It's dumb 
to base a true market price on something like 
this. They can't spend like that infinitely, and 
the majority of people won't either. Um, not 
unless you're sweetisis or something. 
The other is that with the proxy bids, people 
fool themselves into thinking that they might not 
pay their high bid, and that it's more likely 
going to end with a lower price. I mean the guy 
in the Noriko Death cel -- I doubt in his wildest 
dreams that he ever thought that it would reach 
$2 000.  
Now I will shut-up! :)