Do you believe this hobby is dieing?

[EternityOfPain]

I am not asking if you think "cel collecting is dieing" because as we all know cels are not being made for newer series but rather sketches/genga are.

So the question is this: Do you think this hobby as a whole, collecting cels, sketches, genga basically art collecting of anime series is a dieing hobby (meaning there are more people leaving the hobby then entering) or do you believe that there are still more people entering this hobby vereses leaving?

Personally I'd have to say its dieing.. slowly... Only because I just can't see newer anime fans into buying sketches/cels. Very few young people (myself included of course) are getting into the collecting scene. but who knows.. I hope i am wrong. heh.

So what do you think?

[sensei]

If so, I don't see it. There seem to be a reasonable number of newbies and quite a bit of inventory still up FS or FA. I was just revisiting my "early education" days over lunch hour, while putting up screen caps for some of my gallery entries (something I've been good at for new uploads but sloppy about for the old, pre-Photobucket days).

I came across one of the first CCS cels I'd ever bought for myself and went back and checked when I'd done so (on my birthday, January 2001). Interestingly, I thought how many CCS cels of about equal quality there were still around to nab, and for just about what I'd paid for this one. And while I'm happy with my 7-and-a-half-years collecting, I don't at all feel like I and the other CCS enthusiasts have gleaned the area and left nothing at all for new 2008 starts.

Maybe the bloom is off the rose a bit, as cels give way to sketches (which are also interesting but not as immediately compelling) but I still think there's lots to collect and lots and lots to learn about animation.

[metheus]

I think the hobby is stable. While no new cels are being made (repo's aside) there are a ton of items in circulation. You could say we now collect a form of antique actually, and in that sense the antique market does pretty well across the board.

Like collectors say of depression era glass or goods from Occupied Japan, the amount of items in circualtion has now been fixed, nothing new can br produced. Demand may be a niche but it's healthy and stable.

In the cel community I don't feel things have been stable for most of the years I've been collecting. Shifts in popularity of new and old shows came and went, and new collectors jumped on board in various waves. Many stuck around, while others bid up the market and imploded shortly after.

Just my thoughts.

[zerospace]

Actually, I think quite the opposite is happening, despite a lull in the trading world right now. This time of year is always slow -- for buyers and sellers, it seems.

I've been collecting since I was in college... which amounts to about 6-7 years now and I'd have to say that there are more and more younger folks like yourself getting into the hobby. I see a lot of long-time collectors leaving, but by and large, I think the hobby is still going pretty strong. Yes, the sources of cels are drying up, but the cel collecting hobby itself isn't dying as a result. It just has meant competition is getting stiffer and stiffer and prices on a lot of cels have gone up up and away. Sure, there are still dips here and there in cel prices (I've seen a lot of these in recent days), but some of the shows I collect have done nothing but go up in price overall, making me glad I bought most of it when prices were lower.

I would guess that eventually, if studios stop producing artwork (cels, sketches, etc) completely in favor of going totally CG, that this hobby will shrink somewhat due to the ever increasing prices on what is still available, but it won't die. Sort of like... collecting antiques or anything that is no longer produced. There will always be people interested, but fewer will be able to afford it in the long run. It doesn't seem anime is anywhere near losing its popularity.

Just my 2 yen....

[Grico]

I think the lack of new series cels is going to hurt the anime cel hobby at some point. In American anime circles at least older shows tend to just be forgotten and relatively lost in time. This will hurt the ability to gain newcomers to the hobby. Of course on the other hand the cel community is pretty small to begin with. To maintain its current size you do not need any large percentage of new anime fans to join the hobby. One would think that supply will dry up at some point as well. With less newcomers to the hobby and most cel owners being longterm hobbists one would think people would be more likely to already have the major cels they want and no new real supply of new attractive cels being added to the market place. That would hurt the value of mid-grade cels as there would be hardly any market to buy them.

[glorff]

As anime grows the exposure increases and people will want Animation Art from their favorite shows. They will never miss cels because they never knew they existed and do not for the shows that they love

[Keropi]

Going by the way you worded it EOP, I would say that it is indeed "slowly dying". I wouldn't have quite phrased it that way though. I would have used different words, but in effect they would have meant almost the same thing.

I think the two main causes of the slow downhill slope are:

1. Lack of quality pieces put up for sale. For the shows that never had much stuff available for sale to begin with this means that in a few years hardly anything from the show will ever show up at all (as I expect will happen for Sentimental Journey).

Now if a big time collector(s) decides to dump their collection on the market that's another story.

2. As Grico said, a lot of older anime series are going to be forgotten by newer anime fans. So there's going to be fewer and fewer newbies that will want to start collecting production artwork because the items available for sale are from anime that are so old.

To exaggerate...how many of us would still want to collect production artwork if only anime artwork from the 1970's and earlier were available for purchase? Think about how faded and aged many of those cels have become through time. Think about how many anime fans around these days aren't even too familar with anime titles that came out in the mid 1990s. Or maybe they're only familiar with three or four big name titles from that period? The "lesser" titles from that period are disappearing from anime fan's memories.

[Startyde]

I think Anime as a genre is fading in the west, and with it, the hobby. Sorry for the pessimistic view, but it's my honest observation.

[transmet]

I think Anime as a genre is fading in the west, and with it, the hobby. Sorry for the pessimistic view, but it's my honest observation.

I, unfortunately, have to agree.
I believe the numbers and constant frustration shown by the adult swim bumps along with the closing of the Geneon N. American division are but the tip of the iceberg. Even all the (real) kids that I'll run into at the either the different shops I frequent or just know via their parents don't even seem to be watching/following Naruto anymore...?

And it's not only anime, because I'm beginning to see that a lot of my favorite comic book shops are really starting to suffer as well.

[Captain Haddock]

I think anime's one of those recent trends like skateboarding for example that has seen a recent massive spike in popularity, but will now level off into a smaller but still enlarged genre compared to what it used to be. Basically it's no longer the fringe market it was in the west and big releases particually movies from the main studios get plugged and taken seriously in various media outlets now in a manner that they never used to be in the 80's and most of the 90's. Basically it's now 'acceptable' for non geeks to like it and not be embarresed just as it's now acceptable for jocks to get into skateboarding whereas before it tended to be the preserve of Metalers, Punks, stoners and various other goofballs such as myself who hated jocks.

Due to the small scale of the people involved in this hobby I think it will be hard to determine in the long run what the above effects will be, perhaps a small reduction, but who can say for sure?

[sugarcels]

I can't really say, as I don't pay too much attention to who enters and leaves the hobby. I do think, however, older shows (say, from the mid-90s and earlier) are becoming more difficult to find, and any new collectors probably won't have any interest in them. New collectors will probably mostly (if not only) want to focus on the latest and greatest, so sketches might become the big thing.

I said "might" a lot, didn't I? Well, I likely don't know what I'm talking about

[miz ducky]

I wouldn't say it's dying. It's just adjusting.

I'm pretty new to the hobby, myself, so I can't say, in relation to previous years, how the waves of noobs have dropped.

Also, I don't think "real" collectors ever stop. Most people usually have that "one final wish list item" or something like that to look for. On top of that, as long as new anime are being animated, we will have something new to search for.

I think that we will always have people who jump in and out of the hobby.

[RoboFlonne]

I think the ToyStory/Shrek kind of digital animation is taking over.

All the new kids films are the 3d generated ToyStory type.

If anime wants to win back an audience it has to beat 3d animation.

[sletia]

I wish it would die so I had less competition.

[sensei]

I wish it would die so I had less competition.

Amen, Sletia!

Die die die die die die die now!



Darn. Some damn newbie outbid me again on that obscure mid-90s show that I thought only I was collecting any more.

Ah, well ... looks like we're in for the long haul now.