who is starting to notice the "Lottery Ticket" 
mentality start to creep into cels. Please keep 
in mind that this post is not directed at anyone 
in particular, just an extension of the topic 
here. Here is what I mean. When I was younger, I 
collected baseball cards of my favorite player, 
Roger Clemens. I stopped collecting in 1996 
because the industry began pumping out "chase 
cards" at breakneck speed. Chase cards are cards 
randomaly inserted into a set number of packs 
that become instatly valuable upon purchase. So 
companies began charging anywhere from $1.99-$10 
a pack for a chance to get these cards. It became 
impossible for me to collect my favorite player 
anymore, so I quit. the same thing happened to 
comic books. 

Now, cels seem to be falling prey to this 
mentality. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust cels are 
instantly priced at $1000 each, before the movie 
even hits the theatres. When a show becomes 
popular, there is always that collector who 
throws a bid into every auction or buys every cel 
in order to resell them later at a profit. I have 
had people outbid me on an auction and then email 
me telling me if I want the cel, to pay him $100 
and he'll back out! How sick is that? Now I am a 
target? Here is the deal, I refuse to fall victem 
to this again. I will not pay more than $300 for 
a cel unless it is a truly spectacular shot. I 
will not be extorted by dealers who think they 
can bend your will to their wallets. There are 
some truly cool dealers out there: Taro, Chaos, 
etc. But, collectors need to stop paying these 
insane prices for cels simply because they are 
afraid that someone else will beat them to the 
punch. If we start, one by one, refusing to pay 
$1000 for a really mediocre shot of Faye 
Valantine, then it will serve us in the long run, 
and hopefully drive these "Lottery ticket" people 
out of the hobby.