How did you hear about prod art collecting?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:19 pm

How did you learn about production artwork collecting?

I used to be on a lot of autograph collecting mailing lists. Sometimes I would receive catalogs that contained Western production artwork for sale. They sold various cels and sketches from movies, TV shows and commercials. Some of the cels were autographed that's why they sent them to me.

The Warner Brothers stores were starting to spring up in shopping malls around that time. I would frequently drop by a store near my house to check out their framed production cels hanging on their walls.

A year or two later I stumbled an Anime Wink advertisement in a comic book magazine. The ad said that he sold anime cels, but I couldn't get out to his location.

It wasn't until I got on the internet that found out that there were places online that sold anime cels. I didn't attend an anime convention until a little over a year after that.

How did you guys first discover production artwork and about collecting them as a hobby?

Ryouko · Post by **Ryouko** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:24 pm

Oh man, how I miss those Warner Bros stores. They were so very awesome.

I actually got into cel collecting very randomly. I was an anime fan long before I came upon my first cel at Curt's table way back at AnimeFEST 1990... something. It was a closed eyes Tamahome cel from the final episode of FY, and I just thought it was the neatest thing ever. I had to borrow money from my brother just to buy it, but I never looked back after that. :) A few months later I found Asylum Anime online, and bought my next few cels, and it just snowballed.

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:13 pm

funny, the first time i ever saw a piece of prod art was when i was in the warner store too... they had cels from the batman series and i was like...

you can actually BUY cels FROM THE SERIES????????????

(batman is one of my all time favorite characters)
i wanted to buy one of the cels really really realllllly bad but at that time for me it was like, no job + still in school = no cels.

man that seriously did break my heart.

it wasnt untill years later that i, now WITH job and NOT pennyless, could afford them BUT ... the warner stores all closed. *cries*

and again, years later, they started cropping up all over ebay and they were much much more affordable than when they were at the warners stores that i started collecting the batman cels. Then my collecting just branched out and became this whole other creature than what it started out as.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:33 pm

i realized production cels were on the market when i first visited cartoon network on the hana-barbera lot, right after the merger. they had a store with animaniacs cels and i was given a few. however, i didn't know cel collecting was a true hobby until i was browsing "the last unicorn" merchandise on ebay and was introduced to the cels. after winning several cel auctions, someone sent me a link to rubberslug. my eyes were opened.

Post by **JWR** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:48 pm

In my case I used to go by my local comic book store and saw that they had an upcoming signing with Steve Bissette who was working on Swamp Thing as well as several Warren books such as Erie & Creepy.

I went to signing and met Steve and bought a Swamp Thing page as well as a page from a story in a Warren Mag "The Rook". Later in 1997 when I got Maria a book to get sketches of her own Steve was proud to be the 1st to drawn in her book.

I was amaized to own an actual original piece of a comic book as well as surprised that the size was so much larger than the book. Leter that year I got a chance to meet Bernie Wrightson and started to get art from him and slowly branched out to others over the years.

EternityOfPain · Post by **EternityOfPain** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:08 am

A few years ago (3-4) when I was actively buying anime dvds off ebay, I would constantly see "anime cels" (at the time tenchi muyo cels were crazy priced) and was always taken aback how people could spend so much money for just pieces of paint.

However, what really jump started this crazy hobby was back in Aug 2006 it was right as I finished watching City Hunter, I decided to look on ebay for CH related merchandise (posters etc) and I stumped upon this cel:

http://eop.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_i ... mID=176006

the colors, the action, it really sucked me in and the price was reasonable. I rationalized the purchase by saying "all I need is just 1, I'll frame it and hang it on the wall." At the time of the purchase I knew nothing about cels, types of cels, or anything like that. However after the purchase I went on a "learning beng" and surfed the internet for any and all information regarding cels etc. I became fascinated with the different types of cels (A1 end, B1, C3 etc) and really got hooked on buying more. At that time I found a few Juuni Kokki sketches and bam. Off I went.

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:45 am

A good topic. I used to surf the net for anime images and chanced upon a cel image in 1999. I didn't know artwork was available for purchase and a quick search soon brought me to animanga (Viva la internet!).

I browsed for months before deciding to buy juz a few cheap cels for keepsake.....and so here I am now. Didn't expect it to turn into a decade long (almost) passion. If anyone had told me then I would be spending so much on cels, I'd have thought that person was crazy

kizu · Post by **kizu** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:31 am

Simple... I ran out of Saitou merchandise to buy... even doujinshi... Since I was using deputy service to buy doujinshi... I saw a cel of his eyes and thought, man that's expensive! I won't buy it! I'm not paying 100 bucks just for some "eyes". Curious, I waited some more, saw another cel (full face shot). Tried to bid... Horrified at the ending price *cough*. Saw another less appealing one, thought it would be cheap... Horror! T'was not... Curiosity peaked, I decided to do a little investigating at why a simple sheet of plastic was so horrendously expensive considering it didn't look as nice as my doujinshi. Found out why and decided it would be nice to have at least one, I'd probably never get a better cel than the eyes one so I bought it thinking that would be the end of it. hmmmmmm............. Life is full of surprises. *looks at empty wallet*

star-phoenix · Post by **star-phoenix** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:36 am

I was first introduced to production art by those Disney episodes they used to air on TV on how animation was made. I think my first actual cel that I saw in person were the Batman cels at the Warner Brothers store as well. I was not even remotely interested in collecting cels back then. I didn't get into cel collecting until I first saw Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. I immediately fell in love with that character, and that is what started it all! In fact, he is still my absolute favorite character of all time (apart from Yohko Kurama from the YYH series). Funny how that never changed!

Belldandy · Post by **Belldandy** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:53 am

I first discovered you could collect real animation art thanks to the Sotheby's The Art of Beauty and the Beast auction catalog that they sold at The Disney Stores (I love this catalog soooo much, btw!). The cels were pretty much rilezu cels, but I began to think how awesome it would be to own an actual cel.

When I was at Fanime '97 I stumbled on a cel dealer in my search for AMG anything and they had a CEL. That I so couldn't afford. That I so came close to buying anyway. Eventually I discovered they sold cels on the internet and some I could even afford to buy and still have money left over for food and rent! Too bad I didn't know how addicting collecting them would be >.<

teggacat · Post by **teggacat** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:51 am

What a cool topic!!

I had been watching cels from my favorite series at the time [Rurouni Kenshin] for quite a few months, mostly on ebay

,but OMG who would ever pay that much money!! It baffled me...but I continued to watch and admire them, determined to never pay that much, kind of a sticking point with me....one day I happend across a cel from Now & Then Here & There, a show I had recently watched, it was LaLaRu and only $15!! Well, I could swing that!! Bad move...I will never forget when I opened the parcel and had that cel in my hands....it was all over...I instantly understood the fascination and the endless addiction began....I have been in the poor house ever since....

genomexec · Post by **genomexec** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:10 am

I had a good friend in high school who was a huge DBZ fan and prolific collector from the series. Having seen his collection I got interested, and after learning from him about cels.org and keeptrack I started buying a few things here and there from various series.

He liquidated much of his collection, took down his gallery and quit the hobby ages ago, though.

Captain Haddock · Post by **Captain Haddock** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 9:44 am

Well for me Cel buying stemmed from when I used to buy anime at Rob's Anime Corner store around 2003 and while I was fishing around I came across the cels section. From that I started hunting the web for cels of Ai Chan and a Karin Aoi, but little did I realise I was already hopelessly ensnared by that stage! Man I used to actually have savings back then!

cutiebunny · Post by **cutiebunny** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:19 am

I had run out of Sailormoon merchandise to purchase, well, merchandise that I wanted. I had all the Japanese regular issue and promotional cards, but I was slightly sore as to how many characters and scenes were never featured in these sets. I wanted some artwork of them, and having already used Yahoo Japan, I went on there and looked around. This was in 2003.

At the time, some collector was liquidating some of their Mistress 9 cels. All the pieces on there were beautiful, but I couldn't understand why someone would pay hundreds of dollars for just one scene. I figured that, if I purchased one M9 cel, that that would be it for me, and I managed to win the cheapest of the lot. I felt some guilt about spending so much for some plastic, until I realized what the significance of owning one was. After about the third cel I purchased, I was hooked on the artwork .

graymouser · Post by **graymouser** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:57 am

Many years ago I got a free cel when I bought a VHS tape. I had no idea what a cel was, but I found the idea of owning a piece of an anime show fascinating. Even though the cel is not particularly interesting I kept it for sentimental reasons.

http://itamejihada.net/cels/freebies/freebie1a.html