How did you hear about prod art collecting?

[kathpatty]

My son made me watch Fushigi Yugi....put it off for months ...even (white) lied that I started watching it and I did not like it.....
but my guilt got to me and I watched it...hated cartoons even as a child so I was not looking forward to it...and ... I...loved it !!!!
Needless to say - books are alway better and so started my manga obsession
Saw my first cel on evil ebay ....Tamahome at his best (cost a mint)
http://kathpatty.rubberslug.com/gallery ... mID=243649
bought it ...and so it began.....

[iwakuralain16]

oh man... I am really having to dig for this one.
When I was in middle school.. so around... 97/98/99 I was really REALLY obsessed with Sailor Moon. VERY OBSESSED! lol The first time I came into contact with cels was this shop that sold cels in the Northeast Mall which is located in Hurst, TX. I remember this really awesome Mamoru cel they had... I think it was $250. I was I think in 8th grade at that time so that was around 1998/1999 I think? I know there are some people who live in the area I do so maybe there is someone here who knows what store I am talking about? @_@???

So... I had seen cels... I saw how expensive they were... that store sold alot of Disney cels and very few Anime cels that I remember. When I went to Animefest in 2001 I bought my first cel from Curt. I had remembered that store I visited with my Mom in the mall and wanted to own a cel. I spent I think $40 on the cel and bought a large Itoya book from him as well. I was onl 16 so I was burning money I made from baby sitting at the time. LOL I didn't think of it as a hobby... just me being compuslive with my purchases. After I graduated I was able to get a few VERY nice cels cheap and then it snowballed from there. I became addicted O_O

[MDKiller1]

I never heard about it. I was just searching ebay for Sailormoon Cosplay stuff and came across an anime cel. I was all hmm thats pretty neato looking so I bid and thats were it started

[glorff]

I started out by looking for artwork to frame and decorate the game room in my new house in 1998.

I never did hand anything on the wall

[aethel]

Animazement.. 2000? 1999? The first year Yuu Watase came, back when it was a small local con. (And the main way to get anime was fansubs on VHS.) I was discovering conventions as much as cels at that time, truth be told.

Obviously with such a big guest at such a small con, it was really like FushigiiCon. While there I met the purveyor of shadowlight: http://shadowlight.rubberslug.com/gallery/home.asp and while discussing FY, he told me about his collecting habit, and showed me some cels.

Even as a child I had always enjoyed collecting, and so collectibles that were a piece of my favorite anime had instant appeal. I didn't buy anything right away at the con, but after the con spent a lot of time learning more about the hobby and perusing the sites. Having been a collector of misc. goods before that, I understood why cels were so expensive, and was determined only to buy ones that were really nice.

After a little while of watching, I saw this cel pop up at Usagi's House, and the addiction was on: http://aethel.net/cels/sale/FY/chichiri ... miaka.html

[Baylor]

I learned about it at my first anime con. I was touring the dealer's room, and my friend pointed out a framed cel of Vegeta on the wall. I said, whoa, you can buy those??? I did a search on ebay, and it's been downhill from there, especially for my wallet.

[Strictly-Dragonball]

I don't really remember what I did but I was just on the internet looking for DBZ merchandise and stumbled upon this site:

http://www.dragonballcels.com/

Realised what they were and wanted to get one so badly. Did some research into it and started looking for cels on eBay, I knew there were a couple of character's I just would never see. Really wanted though. Did the math and just couldn't ever imagine finding any. A game cel of Gogeta popped up and I went crazy for it.

I started to talking to Gogeta00 who was selling his collection on eBay at the time I said; "Hi, I have noticed you are selling a lot of DBZ cels on eBay at the minute so I'm guessing you'd know a lot about the prices of these? Please may you tell me if you know how much a cel of Gogeta might sell for?"

He told me and I almost died, then he told me it was OK it was a game cel of him and be much cheaper, it was being sold by Animegame and I bid $150 for it which I thought was loads but I lost. I became fascinated with cels from that day forward. I wish I knew Gogeta00 when he was collecting as we talked loads after that and he was a very cool guy.

[miz ducky]

I remember seeing Curt's booth at a con, when I was in search of shitajiki, and asked what they were. I didn't see anything interesting right away, and I didn't feel the need to keep looking so I left.

With in the next year, I heard more about the hobby from other collectors that I didn't know were into it (yes all of them all happen to be members on this site).

So the following year, I hadn't found anything to spend my con allowance on, and I happened to come across Curt's booth again, and I picked up my first cels (some pretty cheap Noir ones).

When I got home Buma (yeah you know it's your fault) showed me this site, and the site of an individual selling some Fruits Basket sketches, and it was over for me.

I ended up giving up Magic entirely because I spent so much on this hobby and I actually just sold all my cards this weekend.

[MidniteKitten]

Hmmm I'm not all too certain how I got into the hobby. I think I was searching Sailor Moon on eBay and stumbled upon one. It was from such a beautiful scene but at an obscene price (at least before I knew what it was) for a poster. Lol, yup I thought they were posters. I didn't think back to it for a while but then I watched Kite. That was the end of it, I looked it up and stumbled across Krafty's cel gallery and did some instant research. When I found out what they were I was so moved by the OVA Kite that I just knew I had to have at least one (its never just one >o<). I bought a Young Sawa and Palla Palla Sailor Moon cel in one swoop for 80$ and I thought that was pretty damned pricey....boy have times changed. 300$ starts to seem like nothing now, and it's only getting worse.

[ReiTheJelly]

The first time I knew that one could buy cels was back around 1995 - a local anime store had some You're Under Arrest cels in their shop. But the first time I purchased a cel was entirely Weyrlady's fault; I bought her a Crest of the Stars cel from Anime Museum for Christmas 2003...

[toonybabe]

I started to major in animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design. After I year there I came home because I was looking to transfer to a different school. On my months off, while working, I started reading a lot of books about the history of the animation industry and how they make animated movies. On some level I was always aware that cels existed - I remember seeing them at the Disney Store and the WB Store at the mall. But for some reason my brain made the connection that if it would be cool to be able to own a cel from my favorite animated movies. So over the summer of 2006 I started to search production art on Ebay. I got hooked through a gorgeous framed Carface cel from Don Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven. The price was low so I took the plunge. After that I found RS and AB, lurked for a while and then created my gallery. Now there is no turning back!

[lcatino]

I stumbled across a repro of Sasuke on ebay, decided to buy it, and it was all over from there.

[sensei]

Around 1970 I was wandering around Manhattan when I saw a bunch of cels from Yellow Submarine in the window. IIRC, they were very high end ones: one showed Nowhere Man, another, the Sgt. Pepper Band, another, a group of the Beatles. I had enough money in my pocket to get one or two, but I was on the way to Sam Goody's where I was planning to blow the wad on classical LPs (all of which I've since disposed of at various garage and church rummage sales). But for years I remembered missing that chance, particularly since when eBay emerged many decades later and I saw how much even sketches and low-end YS cels went for now.

Then my daughter got interested in anime ca. 1999. I followed her at a distance, then became intrigued with this odd-ball series Card Captor Sakura, which supposedly was being prepared for showing on US television. I did a search on eBay, and in the summer of 2000 I found a cute cel of Sakura and Kero-chan going for not a whole lot. I put in a big bid and got it, and was really astonished at how brilliant it was in person when it arrived. It made everything else I'd ever collected look dim by comparison.

By the end of the year I'd stumbled on the Anime Chaos sales site, and soon I was coasting happily down the slippery slope to perdition.

[HotIce]

I honestly just stumbled across a cel from either Outlaw Star or YuYu Hakusho, and I decided to buy a cel. My first from YuYu Hakusho, and from there it was all over. I just sort of stumbled into it, and the rest is history.

[D123]

I was just doing a search on ebay looking up Sailor Moon trying to find anything of my favorite character Black Lady and then I seen them these beautiful cels of her, I’m not too sure what happened after that I know they were too expensive to buy But in the beginning of 05 I got my first cel of her I searched up everything I could to learn about cels and I’ve been collecting ever since