>Anime-Link is protecting its investment from 
>dealers who have a large American customer base

Maybe they are.

Okay ! Lets change this around.

Lets say - You fly over to Japan, and purchase some from
Mandarake, Hey ! They only have 20 plus cels on display for
EVERYONE to see and ANYONE can purchase them.

Well you think *great* I'll buy some nice VHD cels and take
them back to the states....(for your personal collection)

So you purchase a few, Arrive back home upload them onto your
site and because you have been out of wood work lately you
have no idea about the problems with VHD cels !! and what makes
it worse is because you have purchased cels from Anime Link
before they have your address and then........
One quiet Sunday morning you hear a knock at the door... Open it
and find two guys dressed in blue asking you to hand over the 
goods !!

Okay the chances are Link would never go that far..... But I hope
you see the point a am trying to make...

>Film Link International is working on separate deals with the shops 
in Japan

Sounds like BS to me !! And I have already contacted one of the 
shops they mentioned.