As one of the newbie buyers, I'm afraid I can't 
really answer your question...

Because I for one AM buying. I'm very much 
buying. I guess selectively so, however. Its just 
that: 1) no private collectors are selling the 
series I'm mainly interested in... and 2) when a 
cel shows up that I do 'kinda' like, I always 
decide to hang onto my money and hold out for 
cels from one of the series I'm collecting.

Its like... I'd *like* to get one of the OVA 
Tenchi Kagato's that I see people putting up for 
sale... but I could save my money and wait for 
cels I'd much rather have. With all the great 
resources that have been put together with 
cels.org, in combination with eBay and Yahoo! 
Japan.... I don't need to wait for scrapes to be 
tossed out to me. In fact I'm overwhelmed with 
the number of cels that I'd actually really like 
to get. So much that my credit card is maxed! 

Maybe other newbie buyers are experiencing the 
same thing. 'Oh, sure thats a nice picture of 
that character... but if I wait awhile, I bet I 
can find one with a matching background, 
too.' ... in fact I very rarely buy cels without 
backgrounds ATM. (there are very notable 
exceptions however!)

*shrugs*

Jennifer