Fortress_Maximus

I concur with jvmacross and zard, the issue is the complete lack of ethics. Based on these sellers track record all they care about is making a profit, but at what cost? Re-sellers can do whatever they want, however, I find a certain balance in how one conducts their business is important. What some aforementioned sellers are doing is a preying on uninformed cel collectors. On a personal note, I prefer to share my cel collecting experiences and MW, RS, AB, all serve as platforms to openly share information about cels, preservation, and concerns (scalpers or frauds). I find we should not discourage or remove the important cel practice involving discussion and sharing information. As a community we learn more from each other than alone. Lastly, many cel collectors are secretive or inactive in any social setting, so it is important to allow and encourage what little 'active sharing' that exists.

Moving on so did anyone here on MW actually win this overpriced cel? Speak up. In this case there were two internal Rinkya users specifically MW user eldrf and someone else. Eldrf lost simply because the other Rinkya user outbid him. It does not matter if it was by 100 yen or 10,000 yen; thanks to the asinine auto extend feature two or more users can get into a seemingly endless bidding war. Lastly, if anyone really cares to learn more about how it works on Rinkya read here https://www.rinkya.com/en/page/fees

Nice collection juice14! Thanks for sharing.

Does it matter? Even if a set appears it runs north of $450. Hardly a starter cel.

@jvmacross For the newest book how many pages are dedicated to Gunbuster? You posted the hanken genga for Noriko which was very nice. Do you mind posting some more pics of GB too? Want to see if anything new or just old material. Thanks!

Mandarake is famous for low balling offer prices when buying from private collectors. I've worked with them in the past and they are terrible if you ever consider consignment. Also their final sale prices generally go higher because there is simply more interest. Some of their items listed over 10,000 yen will come with a certificate which in and of itself is utterly useless and not worth anything. But to some collectors they feel it is like a certificate of authenticity. Also final sale prices for their store, auctions, and BWA are generally higher than YJA largely due to collectors being aware they refresh inventory, so if they want the item they must fight hard to own it. On YJA and evilbay items can languish for years, which is of no benefit to anyone. Moreover compared to cel dealers, Mandarake has a deep pipeline that no one can match. But as the previous comments noted, none of this matters unless you the collector are willing to participate or allow bastard scumbag POS like urbantreasurehunterjapan and the numerous wannabes to continue to operate.

Cel inventory circa late 1990s to early 2000s is vastly different than today. Gone are the multitude of cel dealers. Gone are the excellent selection from dealers, online, and even with cel communities. Gone are the annual sales. Gone are even the majority of sellers and suppliers to them. Point is what is left are scraps and these POS scalpers are merely worsening the collecting environment. As for shill bidding it is a moot point after YJA changed how usernames appear and how activities can be tracked. Now you can be bidding but you neither know against whom and you cannot determine the final winner. IMO, just focus on the real issue, namely whether or not to stay in the cel collecting game or not. That is the only thing ultimately that you can control, everything else, is noise. Good luck.

Yes jvmacross you are correct. You accurately defined a shill bidder and the state of evilbay's inventory. Also concur the biggest issue for existing cel collectors now are POS scalpers like urbantreasurehunterjapan and small wannabe's like silvrdrago and saraliso. No scalper helps other people let alone collectors. Scalpers are just self-centered, greedy and directly creating more problems for the average collector. As harsh as it may sound, either you beat them at their own game or quit the game entirely.

Exactly! The main reason why the tracker went down was because the person maintaining it said there basically was no point. There are less than six dedicated dealers domestically, and handful of scumbag POS scalpers (which we identified and discussed in this thread). The rest of the dealers are closed.

Yes Yann's defunct site is a good primer. I posted this url awhile ago, glad he still hosts it.

Those codes are the sequence numbers used in production. The A and B letters plus numbers indicate the different timing. This information is typically referenced by staff in the production timing guides or storyboards booklets. Also a thing to know about sequence number, it is used to designate if some sequences are held longer, others are key, opening, eyecatch, ending, while others are repeated. There is a lot more to cover but that is a high level overview. As for non-sequence numbered cels those generally are not production cels; however, it depends. Some might be test cels, others are replacement unused sequences, while others are model sheets. Also it might be a hanken used for advertising, and some might even be used in post production. In the end you really need to be a detective when researching artwork. Good luck!

Saw it but did not want to participate. Did you?

Urbantreasurehunterjapan (UTHJ) is the recipient of countless jokes and the focus of massive disdain among cel collectors. He operates out of Japan but his English is terrible and he does not bother to communicate; so do not waste your energy. This seller is the definition of a price gouger; he absolutely does not care about the cel and artwork communities he harms. He is a prime example of what is wrong with this hobby when he deliberately flips artwork with mark ups exceeding 300%. Sadly it just takes one buyer to support his practices. I've encountered at least three collectors who purchased from UTHJ and paid excessively inflated prices. Most are seasoned collectors so they know what he does, but unfortunately they do not care where they obtain their drug of choice as it were. And in regards to whether or not anyone on the MW forums think UTHJ is cool, lets just say if you review the older posts you will find some users that inaccurately believe UTHJ provides a service.

Our friend urbantreasurehunterjapan is such a considerate and wonderful seller, he keeps thinking of ways to help us save our hard earned monies. @jvmacross Glad you avoided the auction. Doubt those were authentic.

How did it go jvmacross?

Nice sequence jvmacross! And yes we will probably see those counterfeit cels appearing on ebay very soon. The seller probably did not know they were counterfeits as they post a wide variety of authentic cels and other anime goods.

Hmm it is plausable for the counterfeiters to create their own tracelines. But it would make more sense to do reproductions for most memorable scenes or even hankens. This most recent batch were fairly obviously non-production cels from the same shots as the paint-it yourself sets. As for the recently sold cel from AL it is authentic.

One thing that is odd is how did the counterfeiters remove the pre-printed signatures? JVMacross don't you own these reproduction coloring cel kits? Is it relatively easy to remove the signatures?

Counterfeiters are the top reason why buyers need to conduct their due diligence. Even seasoned dealers have missed well made counterfeits. New collectors like yourself need to dedicate a lot of time and energy to study art and learn more, otherwise you risk becoming duped.

Again counterfeiters are returning and unfortunately uncareful buyers are buying. Hopefully our good friend UTHJ bought these.

No. As I explained you will need to dedicate the time and energy to do the work yourself, unless you hire someone which may not be worth it for low end cels.

No one will provide you matching backgrounds or help you obtain one; you need to do all the work yourself. If you really want a matching background color copy for any cel, you need to match it up to the precise shot and test screen captures. You will still need to make adjustments in photoshop or another editor and test printing high end color copies on the right type of paper. All of this is laborious and may not be worth it if you a) have not learned how to properly preserve artworks, b) are happy using a non-matching background, or c) do not care to invest more time and monies when no background suffices.

@ elrdf: As a new cel collector you may not know this but deputy services cannot do anything regarding bad sellers on YJA. It is not their problem or in their interest to police and/or enforce against counterfeiters. If you enter the collecting world the onus is on you to conduct your own due diligence.

Indeed. Looks like the same deadbeat seller is still trying to fraudulantly pass off a counterfeit as authentic. Looks like this cockroach is trying to capitalize on the naivite of some buyers.