"there are others that look exactly or almost 
exactly as the final hanken, so it's normal that 
those are expensive."

I don't agree at all, as if I follow what you 
say, fancels should be so expensive as their 
corresponding production cel.


"Nick never said that they were Test Hanken but
just Test cels"

Wrong, just go back to the page:

http://www.animechaos.com/x/ac-x1.html 

and you will see the words "hanken test cel" 
written many times.