I don't know for sure, as I'm not a vendor-- but 
usually, I would think that "vendors" will follow 
usual business practice and sell a cel at one or 
two times the amount that they themselves 
obtained it for. That might change for the higher-
dollar cels, of course-- but just as a general 
rule for the ordinary, everyday, nothing-special 
cels people vend.

For instance, I bought the cel below for 1500 
yen. It's nothing particularly spectacular-- but 
the character in the foreground is popular, and 
it's immediately recognizable that it's from a 
pivotal, important episode as far as that 
character's concerned. ^_^ (sighhh... no, he's 
*not* trying to grab his butt... gahh, the cel's 
been ruined for me. ^_^)

So the point is, even though the cel itself isn't 
necessarily the best possible shot, because of 
its recognizability and the characters in it, he 
could have probably gotten 3000-4000 for it, if 
the dealer was better aware of the foreign market-
- ie, those of us in the US. ^_^

But when I received the cel in the mail, it still 
had its original pricetag on--- 500 yen. O_O

So pretty much, I'd say business is business. If 
it's a popular series, like FY or SM or DBZ, or a 
popular character, the prices will be inflated-- 
because there are people who are willing to pay 
10,000 yen for a particular cel. If it's not a 
popular series, you can get nice cels for very 
little, comparatively speaking. It might cost 
about the same for a studio to slap an image of 
Totoro on a cel, an image of Saitou on a cel, or 
an image of Lassie. But there are so few people 
who collect Lassie, and so many who are willing 
to compete for the Totoro or the Saitou, the cel 
vendors have to pay more to obtain the T/S, and 
as a consequence, sell it for more to turn a 
profit.

-Cres