Second Chances

[majinuub]

Very rarely do I keep an image of the auctions I've lost/missed out on, but I've kept a few.

One cel is from Virus Buster Serge. It was listed when I didn't have the funds to pay it and the auction ended with no bids. It wasn't relisted since so I missed out big-time there .
The second was a rare hanken that was listed on a dealers site. It was sold before I could get to it. The worst thing is that it was available for sale again from a collector but once again I was too late.
The next was a gorgeous eyecatch cel from the Fatal Fury series, went higher than my max.
I recently lost out on another item, a rare cel from the angel blade series. I only missed out because I was bidding on 2 other items and couldn't get my max bid in on time.

[Belldandy16]

This guy...
http://members.cox.net/phoenix2/Animati ... %20cel.jpg
is one of my BIG wishlist cels i missed.

I always wanted one of Bruce Wayne w/out his mask on and found this PERFECT one (of him making that sexy smile ) and catwoman by his side (my favorite semi-villiness ). It was the (seriously) only month in my LIFE where i only had just 75 cents to my name (usually id have something saved up somewhere but that time i was TOTALLY broke).

i told the seller that if he didnt sell then could he wait until the end of the month when i got paid for me to buy him. the seller was really nice and said yes… but the day after the end of the auction i went online and he had been sold!! i was so heartbroken. i emailed the seller and asked if the guy flaked could he give me a second chance and he said it had already been paid for.

if anyone knows where he is could you please let me know…… so i can go beg and grovel at the buyers feet so i can buy him?

[ReiTheJelly]

Ace can't wait to see what you've got. Didn't you also have a cel of the other Rose girl that would have accompanied the one you put up?

My newest Miyuki beauty will be here by next week, so check my gallery for an update!

No, I've never had a cel of the Red Rose - only the White Rose. I don't think I've ever seen one of that character before. The closest is Tabbykitty's card soldier with a bucket of red paint.

[Captain Haddock]

Cool can't wait to see it!

Ah my mistake, I may well have been getting my characters mixed up it's been a while since I've watched it.

[kizu]

Hmm... Interesting topic! Honestly and oddly enough, when I lose in a bidding war although I feel really sad or frustrated, in the long term I tend to accept the lost pretty well. Maybe it's because when I do lose it's not coz I slept on it, didn't have time... I just reached the max I can do at that time.

The cels I do think about quite a bit are the Rurouni Kenshin ones that got sold before I started collecting. I missed two of these by a couple of months...
1) Movie cel as Saitou warns Kenshin about his new "friend". I saw this sold on ebay for I think around 500-600USD. Then I found it for sale on a personal site (after the ebay fact) for 700USD or 800?, my guess is that since it didn't sell on the personal site, it got tossed to ebay. If I was the type of collector I am now, I probably would've snapped it up without a second thought but it took quite a bit of losing before I decided my ceiling price for this character was too low. - As of this moment I still have not identified who now owns this cel and believe me, I -tried-.

2) Saitou OVA Seisouhen cel, during Kaoru's recollection of when Saitou infiltrated the Kamiya dojo. Apparently Anime-Link had a half off sale and it got sold then for a reasonable price. I don't know however what that price was.... - I have found the owner of this cel along with another but it is not viewable in public and is not for sale. Of course I tried but I'm not about to nag the person to sell to me.

3) Now this last one that I still think about is another Saitou cel (3/4 profile shot during an episode with Aoshi in the library) that got sold in anime-link for 700USD (I think, or maybe it was 800? can't remember). When I started collecting, I got a good friend interested in cel collecting too. During the time I just bought my OP glove bite cel so I gave way to my friend so she can buy this cel. Unfortunately it took too long for her to get the funds together and somebody else bought it. If I'd have known money was an issue I probably would've loaned it to her since at least if she bought it, I could still visit it.

Those are the three cels I think about to this day. I have a few more cels in mind but I've already tried to acquire them but was unsuccesful... But with those pieces, I've made my "peace" since I already gave it a good try.

[cutiebunny]

I guess I should finally respond to my post, right?


The only one that still stings a bit is, back in December 2006, there was a really nice cel of Chibiusa & Helios from the final episode of the Sailormoon SuperS season. For having a matching background, the cel ended up around $600, which was very reasonable considering the scene and condition of the cel. But, at the time, I was relatively new to this hobby and ended up being internally outbidded simply because I could not bid as internally high as the other person.

The others that I missed out were well above the 3K mark and I've found my peace regarding those items. The nice thing about this hobby is that, even if you lose an auction, you still get to keep your money.

[usamamo]

when I lose in a bidding war although I feel really sad or frustrated, in the long term I tend to accept the lost pretty well. Maybe it's because when I do lose it's not coz I slept on it, didn't have time... I just reached the max I can do at that time.

Exactally. Although I might whine for a few days about the loss, i tend to get over it. Meh, what else can you do when you get to your max.
My only regret is coming into the hobby late, when you see all the gallerys around the place that have been around for ages, they have all the lovely cels that you never see around these days. Wish I had come into this when i figured out you can buy cels.

C'est la vie

[sensei]

My only regret is coming into the hobby late, when you see all the gallerys around the place that have been around for ages, they have all the lovely cels that you never see around these days. Wish I had come into this when i figured out you can buy cels.

I still think it's a collector's market. True, there was a time when there was more inventory, as witnessed by the withering of many of the dealer markets that many of us began by patronizing: Anime Chaos, Anime Museum, etc. But for the patient collector, there are still nice things popping up, and many times for much lower prices than what they commanded 5-10 years ago when people were anxious to get cels from series that were new and hot. And with some discerning collectors now moving to another hobby and pruning their collections (or even dispersing them completely), there are good "second chance" opportunities now.

Just remember, someone will say this again ten years from now. And then ten years later. And so on. Just be happy you're here now. It's still a good time to start collecting animation art.

[graymouser]

Just remember, someone will say this again ten years from now. And then ten years later. And so on. Just be happy you're here now. It's still a good time to start collecting animation art.

This is so true. When I first started I felt that it was too late, and that I had missed out on all the good opportunities. Over time I found out that this was incorrect and a product of my wanting all the great stuff 'right now.' It just takes time and a lot of patience. Use the slow times as an opportunity to build up your bidding fund war chest so you will be ready the next time a wish list item comes along. You will be surprised at how often you get a second chance.

Getting back to the original question, I have to admit that I try not to dwell on what I have missed. As stated above, there will be other opportunities down the road. There have been many times that I have missed out on something because of lack of funds, sleeping in, working, or just being too slow to a dealer's update. Despite this, I have been able to get a surprising number those same items (or their sequence-mates) months or even years later as the previous owners decide to let them go.

I never keep images of stuff that I missed out on. That doesn't mean that I don't remember them. It's just that keeping the images would cause me to waste energy regretting what I missed. I would rather spend my time and effort going for what I can still get. Instead of images of cels that got away (which I don't have anyways), here are a few of many cels that I missed the first time, but was able to get the next time around.

http://itamejihada.net/cels/fy-tv/fy1e.html Two-eyed Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi - second time around
http://itamejihada.net/cels/hm/hm1b.html Lodoss OVA Hanken - second time around
http://itamejihada.net/cels/slayers/slayers1f.html Xellos from Slayers - third time around
http://itamejihada.net/cels/slayers/slayers1g.html Zelgadis from Slayers - second time around

[Cordelia]

I don't keep a record of what I've missed out but I can remember the pieces, even those 10 years ago. The worst kind of missing out is due to reasons other than lack of funds e.g. not fast enough to catch an update, got sniper bidded or just didn't feel like buying at the point in time This is not to say that I didn't missed out many times because I couldn't afford the cel.

The most recent case is missing out on a hanken cel on a dealer's webpage. He had sold it for weeks but forgot to take it down. That was more than a year ago and so far haven't seen it appear in any gallery.

Like what other long-term collectors have said, if you wait long enough, something else will pop up to claim your dough. So instead of pining what you missed out, look at what you have or think about what you might have in the future with the money saved.

And second chances are very real, I was very fortunate to get a few cels that I missed out on 9 years ago.

[Keropi]

Nowadays I keep thinking....where am I going to put this growing pile of cels and sketches the next time I move to a new residence?

That alone keeps me from feeling as much regret when I don't win something.

I'm going to have to lighten the load someday. But I hate going to the post office, so that's not helping matters.