> the reason why the cels are illegal is because 
> the cels and hanken monos produced by abc 
> animation studio for abc company in Japan were 
> never meant for resale least of all out of 
> Japan? 

I am sure that studio like AIC will be very
impressed by your arguments...  When they
bulk-sale cels from their anime to shop like
mine, they probably didn't meant them to be
resold... Please, don't make me laugh.

> The difference between a picture on a poster or
> a book is that these are licensed products for 
> resale, cels aren't.

What does licensed mean ? It mean that somone
got the right to sell a produce based on a
copyright owned by someone else.

A production studio usualy own the copyright
to its own anime. It doesn't need to license
itself to sold its own cels !

Yes, there is some exception : That's why
Gainax doesn't put cels of Evangelion on the
market : they don't have the right to do so
because of the agreement they have with other
involved companies.

> poster b/c it IS licensed. Why do you think the 
> movie industry in the U.S. is in such a huge 
> uproar over stopping and making copies of VCD 
> and DVDs that aren't licensed illegal,

It's probably me beeing exceptionaly stupid
but I don't see the relation between illegal
copies of a DVD and cels sold by the studio
that produced (and own the rights) them...

> Anime cels were and largely still are used 
> strictly for production purposes

Cels are only used for production purposes.
It doesn't prevent studio to make some extra
money by bulk selling them to shops (or in
event) instead of throwing them away.

Most studio are doing this... If you have
enough money and the right contact, it's
even possible to buy all cels from an anime
directly from the studio.

How do you think they are put on the market ?!?

> Cel collecting in Japan is still by and large
> a hoardest hobby,

Did you ever saw a cels shop in Japan ?!?
Large ones are getting whole episodes of anime
directly from studio !

> why is it do you think that you  don't see
> more Lodoss OVAs or more GunBuster OVAs 
> cels?

Because they are OAV, which mean less cels than
a TV serie. Because they are old anime and at
that time, studio were not puting as many cels
on the market as now. Because people who bought
them, usualy for very cheap at that time, don't
want to sell them.

What's your problem with that ?!?

> Please, many are stolen

-laugh- A very few cels maybe be stolen. But
that nothing compared to the quantity of cels
on the market.

> from within the company some by the people who
> work on  the series. 

-ROTFL- You are dead wrong ! Studio usualy let
their employee keep some cels for themselve.
The studio perfectly know what most of those
cels will be sold. And they perfectly agree with
this. It's a kind of bonus for the employee.

Do you honestly believe that employee of a
company will regularly steal from their employeer
without losing their job ?!? Where do you live ?!?

> It isn't as if managment was going to 
> check each and every single one of the cels to
> see they were still housed IN the studio each
> and everynight.

It isn't like cels were sorted and the best
one are lying a little everywhere in the studio.

Even for storage, cels are packed in closed
boxes that are stored into storage rooms.

You are not going to find bunch of the best
cels discarded in the restrooms of the studio.

Reality check pleased !