@Darkstorm:
It's doubtful the series would sell that well here since the core fans will just import from america anyway, as that would probably be cheaper & quicker.
Actually from what I can gather, few individuals actually make that much of an effort since it's not really that cheap to get the box sets inland (maybe importing them from Amazon US would be cheaper but that does take a minimum of 18 days). I've discussed it with fans, businesses involved, etc and it's not that they don't want One Piece (many do), it's simply the price and risk of purchasing the series.
@Arcadia080:
I'm assuming that Toei gets some sorta percentage of sales. You mean they negotiate a fixed price per episode and that's all Toei gets? Or is it price per episode plus something in sales? If it's just a fixed price per episode no wonder it's so expensive.
It's a fixed price per episode. If they wanted to purchase the first three US seasons of One Piece for example, it would cost over $2 million dollars. That price has not changed in, from what I understand, in four years. So yeah, the series is a no go.