This fact seems to have not occured to the "this 
is what I paid for it" crowd. That is: If you 
outbid everyone else to get a cel on auction, it 
means no one was willing/able to pay what you 
paid. So when selling, why would someone suddenly 
be willing to match that price? Yes, new faces 
can come around and series can increase in 
popularity (though usually newer = more popular), 
but barring that, you logically CAN'T sell the 
cel for what you paid, because your market is the 
people who bid lower than you. Some of whom found 
another cel from the character or scene, etc, and 
have moved on to other things.

But also, interest in some series can simply die 
out or weaken. It doesn't mean some people out 
there don't want the cels, but when there's 
little competition for cels from a given series, 
collectors of that series learn to be patient. 
They won't quickly jump on an expensive cel 
unless it's exactly what they want. In cases like 
that, you have to price lower to attract buyers.

Pricing is a *complete* pain -- but you can't 
sell things unless you price them. As a private 
collector, you can't start with thoughts of what 
you paid when selling because that's irrelevant. 
The place you need to start is: What are cels 
like XYandZ selling for NOW? Looking at the price 
tags of cels sitting on dealer's sites is equally 
pointless -- if the cel is still sitting on the 
dealer's site, then you're only seeing what it 
was priced at. If you think about it, you realize 
it didn't actually SELL for that much, now did it?

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac