What is your preferred or most-used avenue for cel hunting?

[BuraddoRun]

Until finding this forum, my only methods for buying cels were conventions (pretty much 1 primary seller at the conventions in my area) and EBAY. I have recently ordered from and plan to order from a few websites that I found mentioned here, and have also signed up on Mandarake after hearing good things about them. Buying cels at conventions is nice because you get your cel ASAP and are able to see it in person before buying and chat face-to-face with the seller if you have any questions. EBAY is fun because you might get a great bargain, and you can sift through new stuff put up by people from all over the world on a daily basis. But I would guess that the biggest available sources would be from the place that is the source for most of our collections (the anime collections anyway): Japan. As I said, I signed up for Mandarake which seems like a good place to find some neat items, but I see that a lot of you frequent Yahoo Japan Auctions and use deputy services. Anyway, I just wanted to hear what avenues you all prefer. For ease, secure payments, and such, I guess I prefer EBAY, but then there's only so much available there.

[Gonzai]

Used to be conventions, Midori and Kamiya-san, not it is all private offers.

Unfortunately, those are not cheap.

[theultimatebrucelee]

I also like ebay, since the system is most familiar to me, and no 5 min extension up to unlimited crap lol but selection wise yahoo japan is a better place. and if you want to find anything from recently aired anime(if you collect sketches), mandarake everyday auction is a good place to go. although I think lots of relatively rich collectors are on there, so prices often gets jacked up.

[kathpatty]

I am finding yahoo japan sadly lacking these days on items that I collect from....
Private sellers seem in an abundance these days as well as Ebay having some selling from japan....nice shots some

[sensei]

I have a longish "trap line" of bookmarked searches on Yahoo Japan. For some series there are long "dry spells" but I check them anyhow as sometimes batches of cels or sketches "come out of hiding" after lurking for a long time.


Also, I'm increasingly bookmarking YHJ sellers who regularly put up interesting material, and every so often looking to see what they are offering this week. I'm still one who likes to browse listings for that "OMG" reaction when you see something really nice from a series or movie that you don't know.

That and the forums at Beta and RS, paying attention to fellow collectors who are having sales or putting galleries up for offers, which increasingly has become an important source of my most high-end acquisitions.

[ReiTheJelly]

I buy mostly from:

#1. Yahoo!Japan (while this used to account for 75% of my purchases, it has been rapidly declining, as cels become more scarce)
#2. Private collectors (this seems to be most of my recent purchases)
#3. Dealers (this is rare for me, nowadays. I think I made one purchase from a dealer all year?)

[Kasi]

I collect a bit of mixed bag of cels so my sources depend greatly on what I'm looking for.
My main sources have been Yahoo Japan, Dealers and Ebay. I won't pass up any source if they have what I'm after though.

[cutiebunny]

I also like ebay, since the system is most familiar to me, and no 5 min extension up to unlimited crap lol but selection wise yahoo japan is a better place. and if you want to find anything from recently aired anime(if you collect sketches), mandarake everyday auction is a good place to go. although I think lots of relatively rich collectors are on there, so prices often gets jacked up.

Rich collectors are everywhere. The only difference with Mandarake is that there's the gurantee that the item is authentic, and if it isn't, you can return it to them for a refund. While this isn't such a concern for things like cels (because 99% of them are authentic), it does matter when what you collect are original sketches. If you have a lot of cash to blow on these things, Mandarake is the place to go.

All those that posted before me have mentioned all the usual sources - Yahoo Japan, private collectors, dealers and Mandarake. You may also want to try frequenting forums where collectors of particular anime gather, like a large Dragonball forum, or something like that. Anime Beta is still somewhat of an obscure forum, but some of the more well known anime have hundreds or thousands of members. Sometimes people like to liquidate collections on those sites since they feel it'll go to someone that loves the series and isn't out to make a quick dime on their collection.

[KuroiTsubasa4]

I prefer Ebay and private offers mostly due to the fees involved using deputies for YAJ. Plus, YAJ's auto-extension generally drives me nuts XD Dealers can be pricey sometimes, but I've gotten some great cels through them too. I wish I had paid more attention to cels back when I was going to my yearly convention, or else that might have been a good way to purchase too. Though my only issue is that I like to check authenticity first by taking a screencap and flickering between the cel and screencap image. Can't do that at a convention...

[theultimatebrucelee]

I also like ebay, since the system is most familiar to me, and no 5 min extension up to unlimited crap lol but selection wise yahoo japan is a better place. and if you want to find anything from recently aired anime(if you collect sketches), mandarake everyday auction is a good place to go. although I think lots of relatively rich collectors are on there, so prices often gets jacked up.

The only difference with Mandarake is that there's the gurantee that the item is authentic, and if it isn't, you can return it to them for a refund. While this isn't such a concern for things like cels (because 99% of them are authentic), it does matter when what you collect are original sketches.

I never knew they had guarantee on their regular items and the refund policy, guess I didn't pay enough attention. but then I don't think it would do much either since it'd probly be extremely difficult to prove to them something they sold is not authentic and get them to admit a refund, not to mention it'd taint their reputation. has this been known to happened before?

[Lain]

I saw @KuroiTsubasa4 mentioned about screencaps well the reason why i am lol is that i think i'm ocd on screencaps or what i call screenshots. I have DVD snap3 it's my buddy
I always like checking ebay and YJ daily , i joined YJ a few months ago and think it's a nice Cel hub in found rare cels
But i am not sure about Mandarake .
But for same reason i can not figure out were to find the Dealers online

[cutiebunny]

There are only a handful of dealers around anymore, like Asylum Anime and Anime Link. Many of these sites do not update frequently. Prices vary depending on the dealer.

A lot of dealer purchasing is done at large conventions like Anime Expo, Animazement, Otakon, etc. simply because large dealers attend large conventions as that's where their clientele goes. And in many cases, a lot of the artwork sold at these conventions is not featured on their website for a variety of reasons. If you live in the US and you're looking to buy artwork, large conventions are good place to go. I don't know about sellers in Europe, but I would imagine that they would attend conventions like Japan Expo in Paris as there are many people who attend that event.

[zerospace]

BLEH! Why does everyone prefer eBay? *laughs* I sell on eBay, and rarely buy there. There's hardly ever anything there that I haven't seen before (either on a dealer site or Japanese auction site, that is).

I mostly pick stuff up from Mandarake, YJ, and fellow collectors, with a sprinkling of dealer purchases and eBay purchases mixed in. The stuff I get from eBay is usually american animation art, though.

[Keropi]

When I started collecting in 1997, I got nearly everything from cel dealers and other cel collectors. Mostly it was non-Japanese cel dealers back then. I bought from Nichibei, Anime Assault, House of Anime, CelMart, Animanga, Splash Page Comics, Ninja Death, Asylum, Anime Taro and Aino Anime. Then I went to my first Anime Expo in 1998 and bought from Anime Wink (later became Anime Link). Then it was Anime Gambit, Mangaya, Anime Shop Vi, Ed Noonchester, Noriko's and Usagi's House (at Anime Expo 1999). August 1999 I started buying from Mandarake's store here in Torrance (forgot when they closed).

Then it was AnimeCel.com, Black Dog Eneterprises (eBay) and MediaBlasters table at Anime Expo 2000. In July 2000, I started getting things off Yahoo Japan with Sato's help (the first deputy that helped me out). Then it was Anime Cels World and Art Toons. Christmas 2001 I decided to switch to mostly collecting from ren'ai game anime (cheaper and higher quality cels were available from those). I bought from places that had those (mostly Japanese dealers) such as Animebox, Anime I-Land, Collection Mall, Anime World Star.

From April 2002 onward I was mainly getting things from Yahoo Japan with a few exceptions from places like Anime Taro, Celmart on eBay, Anime Gambit, Anime Chaos and Anime World Star. Then "Anime Taro" became "Anime Museum". I got my first Mandarake Everyday Auction win December 2003. After that it was just about only Yahoo Japan, Mandarake Auctions and Anime Museum for me. Once I bought from Anime Shop Panic. I got from eBay once and another from a private collector. In 2006 I transitioned from collecting just about only cels to mostly collecting sketches. I had to go to Yahoo Japan and Anime Museum for those, but it was just about only Yahoo Japan by then. Later Mandarake started auctioning more sketches so I got some from there too.

By 2009-2010, it was 90% Yahoo Japan and 10% Mandarake Auction. In late 2010 and early 2011, I was getting just about only low price sketches from Yahoo Japan. And that's where it ended. Every day I was searching Yahoo Japan going by:

1. Anime series name (Higurashi, KimiNozo, Sadamitsu, Doukyuusei) using English and Japanese titles
2. Item type (cel, genga, douga, layout, background, roughs)
3. Seller name
4. Category (Adult Cels, Sign Autograph)

EDIT:

Oh, I forgot. New Pocket was in there too somewhere. But I'm too lazy to look it up.

[BuraddoRun]

Wow, Keropi! I'm assuming you kept records of all of this. I don't think I'd remember all of that stuff as clearly as you explained it if it had been my story.

I've been having a lot of fun with Mandarake. I have yet to win anything besides scripts at this point, but I've got my eyes on some artwork coming up and one of these days I'll actually be the top bidder on something.

Also one of these days I'll have to join Yahoo Japan auctions. Do most of you use deputies for those auctions?

Lain, have you checked out the For Sale section here on Anime-Beta? Some of the online dealers post updates there and have links to their sites.