It's a buyer's market right now, and probably has
been for at least the last year or so. I have
cels that I bought for $30 which are lucky to
sell for $10; but I also have friends who bought
cels for $50 or $100 which go bid-less. So
there's not quite anything as clear-cut as a
percentage you can use as a rule. It just helps
in general to be familiar with the series, and
what the market has been supporting, and price
your cels accordingly.
But there are other factors. A lot of the people
who have been collecting cels (and who have
contributed to some of the big bidding-wars in
the past) have more complete collections now and
are content to let nice-but-unneeded cels float
past. Without the competition, a buyer can get a
decent cel at a stellar price, but it's bad for
the seller. The lack-of-competition might come
from other areas than a complete collection--
marriage, buying a house, pets, unsteady jobs, or
even just wavering interest in cels in general.
Likewise, it seems that anime is becoming more
and more mainstream, and more and more of these
new fans are younger. Less attention is being
spent on "older" shows, and more attention is
being spent on the new CG shows. However, there's
less of a following for individual shows... the
fandoms seem much more weakened than they did
before, so there's less of a drive to collect
production art or paraphernalia related to a
series.
There will always be a niche for production
art... but the people who buy it haven't been
collecting the same way they used to. |