I highly recommend anyone who never made a trip 
to Japan, do so, it is fun, even if you do not 
know a word of Japanese, it is still very easy to 
get around areas in Japan, there are plenty of 
informations on the net available for cel 
shopping in Japan, and it will make you 
appreciate cel dealers much more, I guarantee, 
you will also undertand the current market and 
supply of cels in Japan much better.

>I think we are seeing the 
>reverse AnC phenomenon. Most people refused to 
>pay the outrageously high prices, and while it's 
>true there are more available

Well, there are not just more available, there 
are tons more avaiable, all been released at 
once, you will see more ANC cels in cel shops in 
Japan than any other title, but the supply will 
eventually run out.

Dealers are collectors as well, we pay insane 
price for cels in our collection too, at least 
occasionally, if not often.

I have purchased quite a few cels at more than 
$1000+ each, not wise no doubt, but since when is 
cel collection is a wise thing to do, I have seen 
other dealers does the same in Japan in person, 
those Hankens Yann has are not cheap, Curt`s 
collection are very high quality and very 
expensive, there are plenty of cels that cost 
them more than $1000 each.

I have seen other Japanese dealer/collectors 
paying very high price in both live and on line 
auctions:

http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c1878
6602

so you can imagine how much I had paid for some 
of my most expensive cels, I do not want to pay 
high price either, however some cels can only be 
obtained, if you are willing to pay the price 
that someone can not refuse, sure I can wait and 
be patient, but that just means I will most 
likely not have some of the cels I have now, and 
been patient, had been costly for me, trust me, 
there are many cels that I regret for not buying 
when I had the chance.

Regarding the price of Nuriko cels on ebay, I 
think the price is just about right for the 
quality available on ebay now, I had sold a 
Nuriko from the same exact sequence for $20 
before, so at $60 that is 3 times more.

>A dealer is not going to buy a cel for an amount 
>more than they're sure they can sell it for plus 
>a markup for themselves. (That would be a 
>foolish and/or dangerous business move.

sure no doubt, however this rule does not apply 
to cels they buy for their own collection, 
remember, dealer = collectors, If I am going to 
purchase a cel that cost $1000 to $3000 for my 
personal collection, reselling will be the last 
thing in my mind, the only time I would sell a 
cel from my collection is to make room fo new and 
nicer cels.

For example Enishi cel on our site, I purchased 
it from a well known collector on this forum at 
$1100, it is listed on our site at $880, sure I 
take a loss, no problem, I will do all it takes 
to obtain the nicer cels, it is just part of 
collecting.

I am always try to imporve the quality in my 
collection, so occasionally we will have to move 
some cels to make room for the new purchase, even 
if it means I have to sell it at less then what I 
had paid.

>I'm going to guess 
>there's a pretty high markup on the cel

Best way to find out is go to Japan and do cel 
shopping a few times and you will know how much 
markup dealers have.

>Animegame seems to have taken the business angle 
>of moving *less* stock for a higher markup, as 
>opposed to other dealers who choose to move 
>*more* stock for a lower markup

It is easy to get low to mid quality cels so it 
is possible to move more stock with low quality 
cels.

It is very hard to obtain high quality cels, so 
it is not that easy to move more stock with 
higher quality cels.

We do carry many cels from many other titles, not 
just expensive cels, most have very comparable 
price with other dealers, I prefer/at least I 
tried only listing decent quality cels even for 
non popular titles, sure I can list 200 to 300 
lower quality cels per week, if I want to, yes I 
could seriously, frankly that would not be very 
fun.

please keep in mind the mark up on lower quality 
cels are normally far higher than the higher 
quality cels.

$400 cel with $100 mark up sell at $500= $25% 
mark up

$10 cel with $20 mark up sell at $30 = $200% mark 
up

The room for mark up on lower quality cels are 
always higher than higher quality cels, and lower 
quality cels are easy to get, go to a cel shop in 
Japan and purchase the grab bags at 2000 yen for 
10 cels, or go through the bargin bins, there you 
have it, hundreds of bargin cels, and sell at $10 
to $20 per cel, that is very good profit.

you should also consider the cost factor + more 
extra work that had to be put in to obtain the 
higher quality cels.

Even wonder why most dealers don`t carry clow 
reed cels? they can get it for sure if they want 
to, we use similar source after all, matter fact 
most dealers have access to extremely high 
quality cels, but they are not cheap, higher the 
cost, higher the risk.

dealer = collector

repeat after me

dealer = collector