Reuniting Cels/Sketches

[cutiebunny]

I was able to reunite some production sketches to a matching Sailor Moon cel I had owned for years earlier this week, and that got me to thinking - If a matching cel/background/layer/sketch popped up for something you already own, would you spend more to get that item than you did on the item already in your possession? Do you feel an insane urge to, for the sake of preservation or completion, reunite the images or do you not mind if someone else buys it instead? If you had this happen to you, what was your experience?


For me, it really boils down to price. If the item being offered is more than what I paid for it, chances are that I will back off completely. The sketches I just received this week were in a small lot and the price for that lot was fast approaching what I initially paid for the cel. I was very close to just letting the lot go. I have a horrible habit of feeling somewhat obligated to, if at all possible, keep all the elements together for the sake of preservation. But whereas a couple of years ago I would have bid all sorts of crazy prices to reunite, I'm at the point where I don't feel the drive to do that as much. It stemmed from an auction several years ago for a matching layout and douga to a cel I already owned, where the price was going over 1K just for these sketches and yet I still wanted to pursue it due to this sense of obligation. I had to snap myself out of it, with a "Are you really willing to spend *that* much on the matching sketch to a cel that you already own?" The answer, of course, was "no", and I was content to let the sketches go knowing I had at least made a solid attempt to reunite.

[sensei]

I can relate: the most I ever bid on a YHJ auction was for a cel that went with a very nice genga that I already owned. That's the reverse of your situation, I realize, but my persistence was based on the same wish to put together the beginning and the end of the animating process. The cel was, however, a pretty one and an important moment, and so it attracted equally persistent bidders. Had I prevailed, I'd have had to wreck my budget, and in the end that reality slowly overcame my enthusiasm. I don't regret letting it go, for that reason, but I also don't regret going as high as I did. That's the nature of the hobby.

In little ways, though, I enjoy putting together items that have been separated during sales. In the batch I just received, I probably might not have gone for a sketch set of the moe character Milka from YamiBou, had I not seen that it went with a layout I'd previously gotten in a grab-bag lot. And in the next batch (still in Japan to come in the next shipment) is a layout that goes with a Rozen Maiden sketch set that I already have. Part of my academic background, I guess: it bothers me to have part of the original documents in one part of the world and another part somewhere else.

[majinuub]

I don't mind reuniting cels/sketches as long as it doesn't end up hurting my pocket. However, I'm more inclined with reuniting sketch sets with their cels. By sketch sets I mean ones that come with layouts, gengas and anything related to the sequence. Even though I can't read Japanese, I am intrigued as to what particular ideas, if any, were made before the animators decided to finalize a particular scene.

This was one of the main reasons I have purchased some group sketch sets from a series I collected from(came with a mixture of dougas/corrections/gengas etc.). I was already satisfied with owning the cel but it's what really pushed me to purchase the sketches(being placed in lots and some slightly cheaper than the cels was a bonus). If they were individual purchases and they ended up being more expensive than the cels, I would've only purchased the ones that were important to me.