We've all seen them. The wonderfully "helpful" people on eBay who so graciously offer their assistance so you can buy stuff from Japan. Sometimes they even add their reasoning; it's because they want to meet, and of course help, people from all over the world. They want to make friends.
Of course this kind of "friendship" is just as desired as a handful of sand through your crack. The cels these people offer are all available on Yahoo Japan, Rakuten and even from the sites of the few cel dealers we have left. The price of their friendship is merely a 100% mark-up (at least), and that's just the resellers. The scalpers actually win/buy cels on YJ for $60 and resell them on eBay for $399.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that they are trying. We all like to make money and in the end, of course, it's me who decides to buy from them or ignore them. I get that. But
what does irk me is the blunt manner they operate.
So Helpful
The cel community is small and people know each other. There's also only a handful of places left to acquire cels from these days, and most of the established cel collectors naturally know these options. We check these sites regularly.
So there's a fairly big chance we either:
a) seen the cels for sale with the original listing,
b) seen what price the cel was bought for (in the case of scalpers) and/or,
c) were the person the scalper was bidding against in the first place.
I really think it's all pretty insulting.
There's a cel of Goku on eBay right now that I already bought from Yahoo Japan weeks ago.
In fact, several sellers have it listed. They don't even care to check if what they are offering is still available. They just keep relisting it.
Luckily, the 100% and more mark up makes their cel auctions not the most attractive, so I doubt they are very successful. Hopefully this nasty trend ends soon, but some of the cels have been listed on eBay for years. Apparently they are patient.
A Venus Flytrap is easily avoided, but every once in a while it does manage to catch a fly.
Just make sure it isn't you.
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Bleg (Wednesday, 14 March 2018 09:48)
Hear hear!
Missed Out (Monday, 16 April 2018 23:43)
Just wanted to sadly chime in my agreement. Bid against someone for something and they pushed it out of my budget at the time. 275 Yen, not much but I was already buying other things.
Then I saw it on eBay for $600 dollars.
I still tried to save to get it, I wanted it so bad I was desperate enough - and angry enough. But then someone else got it, anyway. It wasn't meant to be. But it was insult to injury to see it be relisted a week later at double the buyout...let the people who collect for the joy of it have a chance!!!
RC (Tuesday, 17 April 2018 10:41)
@Missed Out
Ugh, so sorry to hear that. It angers me they do manage to make sales, because that means it is lucrative and they will keep doing it.
But other nice stuff always comes along, so hopefully you'll find something amazing soon to wash away the bitterness of this one.
Missed Out - Happy Ending (Wednesday, 16 May 2018 07:46)
I think your good vibes washed over me, RC, because the auction I was looking at had 2 cels, and some very lucky things happened for me...
1) The /very next/ sequence in cel A came up on Mandarake not too long after, a few weeks, so I was able to nab that!
2) Ironically, the person who bought the cels from the eBay scalper only wanted cel A and not cel B. They put cel B up on auction last week and I emailed them, explained my plight, and they lowered me the price some out of sheer good will and sympathy (I still gave them a fair price, since I knew how much they paid the eBay scalper. :/)
I'm waiting for it to arrive in the mail this week!
Lesson learned....be ready to be in a bidding war on Japanese sites so you don't get scalpers on eBay doubling (or more!) the price. I've been lucky to be present at auction ending times, but that could change with work schedule. :/
Kudos to that sympathetic eBayer; they really didn't have to do that for me but it was super nice. We collectors have to stick together!!! Hope your collecting is going well, your tips have really helped me as a novice collector!
RC (Saturday, 19 May 2018 17:00)
So nice to hear that! :) Congrats!
And see? Something nice always comes up, we just need to be patient :)
Thanks for letting me know Missed Out, and for telling me my tips were helpful. You are right, we cel collectors really do have to stick together :)