Misadventures in Cel Collecting - Share Your Horror Stories

[KuroiTsubasa4]

As a fairly new collector, I know I've made some mistakes while acquiring and maintaining my cel collection and I'd love to hear from others in the hobby to:

A. prevent others from making the same mistakes

and

B. make myself feel better about my own stupid mistakes

My biggest most recent whoopsie came when I was trying to gently clean up the back of a cel that had paper stuck to it. I had the cel on a smooth surface and made every effort not to move the cel around much but the cel was old and had raised areas from previous manhandling. When I was done removing the paper, I flipped the cel around and noticed that these raised areas were now a bit scuffed from contacting the surface I was working on. I was a huge dummy and should have probably at least had the cel on top of a cel bag or something (would a towel have been better? I don't even know anymore...) Lesson learned, cel surfaces are more susceptible to scuffing than I had realized. I just am thankful it wasn't a huge wishlist shot or an A1end or something T^T

So any other horror stories? Hard learned lessons? Just no shaming, cuz I'm sure we already feel bad T^T (whhhhhy, whhhhy did I have to work on removing that paper...)

[JWR]

The one "rookie" mistake I made early on was when we 1st started collecting artwork from Ai Yori Aoshi. I had not done my homework and did not remember that the show was totally done on a computer. So when this image http://ryan.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... emID=98653 popped upon YJ I bought it and later realized it was a fan cel.

My only horror story involved a purchase of a Ranma 1/2 cel from the second movie Nihao my Concubine I bought from Mandarake. I paid a good amount for it but what I received was not what was shown. The condition was terrible compared to the image on their site. So bad that either the image used was very old and the cel had been horrible mistreated or it was photoshopped. When I emailed them about it with the image captured from their site as well a scan of the cel received I was told "sorry but we will not do anything" (not in those exact words but children are precent ). Now I know others that have had great customer service from them but in my case I have not bought any thing from them since.

[cutiebunny]

I think everyone makes a couple of mistakes along the way. It's just natural to expect that there be a learning curve.

In regards to cels, the worse thing I did was accidentally touch the airbrushed special effect layer of a transformation cel, leaving a nice finger print behind. You'd think the paint on those things would be dry after 15+ years at the time, but no, it wasn't. Sadly, my hand slipped while bagging the cel, so, it will forever remind me of my mistake every time I see it.

With shikishi, when I first started and wasn't aware of how prevalent counterfeits are, I did purchase a counterfeit shikishi which I later threw away to avoid it possibly being resold later down the road. Having a primer regarding shikishi probably would have helped at the time, as I operated under the assumption that the Japanese have higher morals in this area and probably aren't out to con. However, I see that several people on RS have also bought counterfeit shikishi and these were all posted long after I posted advisory notes on this board regarding what to look for, so who knows how helpful a guide would be to potential collectors.

[Cherryblossom]

I still consider myself a rookie as I do not have anywhere near the knowledge that so many people on this forum do have. For that reason I don't post often as I never know what to say, however I do read and have found many useful tips so please continue
I think the biggest 'panic' moment was when I opened my cupboard to find my cel books fallen off their stand (my bf very kindly built a wooden structure for them to hang from) and crumpled underneath since then I have taken extra care not to let this happen again as fortunately they survived phew!

[Krafty]

Owww, some serious moments there, folks.
One that springs to mind was after buying a cel with matching (stuck) douga on eBay; the seller sent it rolled in a tube. Well, it was very crumpled and I wasn't at all impressed. It had cost me around US$100 equivalent at the time, would now be worth over $700. The moral- ALWAYS send cels/drawings flat. When I send artwork in the post I custom-make each envelope to fit the contents and heartily reinforce it to avoid damage. So far it has worked out OK.

[JWR]

Owww, some serious moments there, folks.
One that springs to mind was after buying a cel with matching (stuck) douga on eBay; the seller sent it rolled in a tube. Well, it was very crumpled and I wasn't at all impressed. It had cost me around US$100 equivalent at the time, would now be worth over $700. The moral- ALWAYS send cels/drawings flat. When I send artwork in the post I custom-make each envelope to fit the contents and heartily reinforce it to avoid damage. So far it has worked out OK.

That reminds me of a seller years back on YJ Chachamaru who sold a lot of Ranma 1/2 cels but would wrap the cel flat in what was like "Christmas Wrapping paper" not even a backing board. Somehow they made it to the USA safely but I always feared getting one folded in half or stuffed into my mailbox.

[kathpatty]

Cutiebunny

In regards to cels, the worse thing I did was accidentally touch the airbrushed special effect layer of a transformation cel, leaving a nice finger print behind. You'd think the paint on those things would be dry after 15+ years at the time, but no, it wasn't. Sadly, my hand slipped while bagging the cel, so, it will forever remind me of my mistake every time I see it.

This was mine- also, but it went far beyond a print . I was wiping my cels off with a slightly damp cloth and did not realize the air brushing came off until I removed a big section on my first wipe....

Live and learn

[sensei]

I've done it all, and seen a lot of it too. (Big box from Europe with cels in it ... arrives unsealed, goes rattle rattle when you shake it ... fortunately cels still inside sans packing and not in a zillion pieces.) And airbrushing, I've learned is always a call for extreme caution and white-glove treatment.

But my worst experience is when I set up a celotape removal lab in the garage. It was nice: isolated, quiet, well-ventilated, and with hanging racks nearby where I could put the sketches after I'd removed a strip of tape to let the solvent evaporate. I'd just finished work on a very nice shuusei genga from Asatte no Houkou (by Ikuko Itou, but I didn't know that at the time) and hung it to dry. Then I stretched my legs out, tipped my chair back, and -- CRASH!!!

I'd bumped a full cup of coffee off a nearby bench, and it fell to the concrete floor, the cup shattering and coffee flying all over the place. Including a number of now indelible coffee spots on my professionally conserved Ikuko Itou sketch.

(Happily, I'd scanned it before I did the celotape removal, so the coffee spots don't have to be displayed on Beta, but I know they're there and cringe every time I see that sketch.)

[LWK]

Same thing here, smudged out my airbrushing. That stuff is so ridiculously sensitive. Also wasn't paying attention and completely wiped away my topside trace lines on another cel. Not that noticeable, but in some spots, its like durrrr, why did I did I do this -_-

[nowherekid85]

Cutiebunny

In regards to cels, the worse thing I did was accidentally touch the airbrushed special effect layer of a transformation cel, leaving a nice finger print behind. You'd think the paint on those things would be dry after 15+ years at the time, but no, it wasn't. Sadly, my hand slipped while bagging the cel, so, it will forever remind me of my mistake every time I see it.

This was mine- also, but it went far beyond a print . I was wiping my cels off with a slightly damp cloth and did not realize the air brushing came off until I removed a big section on my first wipe....

Live and learn

Ouch and double ouch. I would never have thought that the paint could be ruined so easily on those types of cels. It's such a shame that accidents like this happened. I will remember this, to make sure to handle my airbrushed layers with even more care and caution than normal.

The only accident I've really had was when I was cutting open a sealed cel bag and accidentally cut into the plastic that was the cel. VERY fortunately, it was a really cheap cel with a small image on it. I always rebag the new cels that I get, and most of the bags are sealed, so I always use scissors to cut them open--and I am always extremely careful when I do this, and cut it along where the flap is sealed. This one time though, I just don't know what happened.

[ReiTheJelly]

Before I realized that some cels have trace lines hand-painted on the FRONT of the cel, I accidentally wiped off a huge section while trying to gently clean the surface of a dirty cel with water. Whoops.

[sensei]

The only accident I've really had was when I was cutting open a sealed cel bag and accidentally cut into the plastic that was the cel. VERY fortunately, it was a really cheap cel with a small image on it.

Yeah that reminds me of when I first was told that it was a good idea to snip off a corner of the cel bag so the cel can "breathe." So I did.

Then I realized that it might have been a good idea if I'd taken the cel out of the bag first.

[jcaliff]

I'm pretty sure I shared this story, but I accidentally left a complete cut from the fourth series opening of Legend of the Galactic Heroes in Japan when I moved home in 2003. Somehow I must have left it in one of the clear files I thought I had emptied, and it didn't make it home with me. I'm sure it got thrown away. I really feel the pain, especially since I still have a bunch of scans.

[JustVan]

My biggest Ooops are always just trying separate cel layers or cels from stuck sketches/douga/backgrounds etc. It usually involves bits of paint and/or trace lines being peeled off onto the paper I was trying to separate it from. I'm sure we've all been there. The worst case was recently on this Ranma 1/2 Nabiki cel. The trace lines are all on the back of the cel for some reason, and they were peeling off with the paper... so I gave up and just stuck it back on so it lines up... but a significant portion of them are now on the paper instead of the cel.

I think I've been pretty lucky with cels. The only other OH CRAP moments I feel like I've had were related to selling some cels for less than I wanted/felt they were worth back in the day.

[sensei]

The trace lines are all on the back of the cel for some reason, and they were peeling off with the paper...

Trace lines are normally photocopied on the back of the cel in mirror image from the douga. As they are made of carbon powder plus some plasticizer with a low melting point, they can and do stick to paper, some plastics, etc. I've seen this called "edge loss" in descriptions. Just another thing to worry about when unsticking a douga.