My recommendation to Yann is that you announce 
the exact date and hour that a sale starts about 
a week before the sale (Anime Chaos does this 
all the time and it works perfectly for Nick).  
Or you should at least the very date (like Anime 
Taro used to).

This way, no one is caught off guard and 
therefore will have less of a reason to gripe.  
If everyone knows when the next sale starts, 
everyone has an equal chance to get what they 
want.  It's more fair to everyone.

Trust me, if everyone knew ahead of time that a 
sale starts at a certain time (even 3-4 in the 
morning), the serious collector will be more 
than happy to set their alarm clocks at wake up 
early in the morning.  They would prefer that 
over missing out on the chance to get the cels 
they most wanted.  Sure, competition over 
certain cels will still be tough, but people 
will be satisfied enough so long as they receive 
AN EQUAL chance at getting them.

And don't forget that people would save up more 
for an order if you announce a sale a few weeks 
ahead.

I know that you used to announce specific 
starting dates and times for Animanga sales, so 
I can't imagine why you haven't done so the last 
few times around.  The only drawback is possibly 
that you may get a lot of traffic during the 
first 2-3 hours, but you can easily protect the 
site from crashing (I know that you have done so 
in the past).  Plus, since you hardly update new 
cels any more, I don't think even that would be 
a problem.

If there is a good reason why you abandoned this 
practice, let me know.  Because I don't 
particularly see one.