Your Collecting Journey part 2

[cutiebunny]

Since it's been suuuper quiet on the boards, I thought I would revive JWR's topic from five years ago....which is a lifetime, in this hobby.

Quick reference: viewtopic.php?f=70&t=27715

His original questions were:

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

And, I'm going to add two more:

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

---

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

I had collected Japanese Sailor Moon cards from 1998-2002 and was at the point where I had everything, or the sets that I didn't have/completed were so obscure that finding and completing them would have required more money and time than I wanted to spend on the hobby anymore. I was frustrated, in part, because so many of the card series repeat the same image; You'll have multiple sets released at the same time, most of which feature at least 1/4 of the same images used in other sets. I wanted 'fresh' material, especially characters that were not featured in any of the card sets. I bought three cels roughly at the same time, all featuring artwork that wasn't featured in any series. Initially, my goal was to collect artwork not featured in any of the card sets, which meant that there would be a higher concentration on the final season, Sailorstars.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

In addition to wanting to own artwork not featured on cards, I wanted to concentrate on emotional shots, especially those that were pivotal to the development of the plot or character. As I watched more anime, I gradually wanted to own a piece of that show, which explains why I dabbled with Inuyasha for a while. Some series, like CCS, I began to collect because I liked the artwork that Sensei featured in his update.

Sensei is the 1980s 'afterschool special' drug dealer of our hobby..."The first one is always free"...

I had seen the Cardcaptors dub years early but it never made a lasting impression on me. I immediately went out and bought the Pioneer release thanks to a Right Stuf sale and was blown away, especially by episode 40 and the 'Final Judgment' arc. A couple of the cels where I own only one or two of from that particular anime are because I saw sequence mates added in other galleries and wanted one. The rest are from seeing how much I could get with a 10,000 yen bill at Mandarake.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

Competition and Price. I started to make the transition to shikishi in 2009 for these reasons. By about 2008, the supply of quality Sailor Moon cels had evaporated. When I first started, there were usually 1-2 auctions per week of really nice cels and it was enough to satiate the collector market at the time. But these dried up, causing the remaining collectors to fight over new Mandarake BWA additions. With the concept of deputy services and Mandarake taking off, prices escalated from their already high level. I knew it was time for me to quit when I saw a Sailor Moon cel that, years earlier, would have maybe sold for 50,000 yen on YJ, only to sell for three times that on a BWA. I also knew who my main competitor was and I asked myself if there was any reason for both of us to tear each other up financially. Not that I have anything against her, nor anyone else that outbids me. I simply felt my funds could be spent better elsewhere.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

To become less cel based. I mentioned that I want to downsize my Sailor Moon collection earlier this year and that still stands. The problem I'm having is that the majority of the cels I bought are ones that I still very much love today. Maybe I should determine what to keep by flipping a coin? Wonder where I can find a two sided coin these days

[nowherekid85]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

My Inuyasha collection originally started with my Inuyasha Kotobukiya figure, and then expanded to a very large collection of figures and plushes and other small items. Then I discovered cels, and was like "Why am I not collecting these already?!" So I started collecting those, discovered Yahoo Japan and made my Inuyasha collection a million times more impressive. My only goal is to make my entire collection as amazing as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if I have the biggest Inuyasha collection in the world. If it's not number one, then it has to be pretty close. I like being #1. One day I'm actually going to get an official count of what I have.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I love the character, plain and simple. I'm not one to willingly spend a lot of money, so if I didn't really love the character and show, I wouldn't be spending the money. To me, it doesn't matter how pretty a cel is or how great the artwork is-if I don't know anything about the show and really love the character, then I'm just not interested in it. I do have a handful of cels and sketches of characters that I'm not all that crazy about, but I have them because they came along with other cels that I wanted to buy.

There might be this giant universe of series out there, but I've only watched maybe 15 anime total. When I watch a show, I can't sit there and watch more than two episodes in a row. Naruto and Inuyasha were the only ones I watched more than 2 episodes per night. Just can't do it. Not to mention I don't have the time at all right now. I can't remember the last time I turned the tv on, but I do know it was at some point previously this year lol.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

I haven't changed my focus, but I've expanded it a little to include Rurouni Kenshin. I love that show a lot, and would love more cels from it, but Inuyasha is still my main focus. I just love the hanyou, what can I say?

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

There's only one direction to go and that's to make it even bigger and better! However, I am forced to temporarily limit my spending for the time being while I get my own business started. Once I get it fully up and running, and make even more money than I did before, I will be able to get back into collecting full swing again!

[sensei]

Thanks, CB, for starting a thread. I'm going to resist the temptation to be "Kurosensei, Terminator of Conversations" and move this to a special forum that only I can access. Also for crediting me, even though I don't recall actually giving out free cels at playgrounds (I limited myself to tabs of LSD with images of Kero-chan printed on them ).

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

I dunno. I recall being blown away by watching CCS on VHS fansubs, which had to be ordered by sending USPS money orders to various dubious sorts that you met on the Internet. (Actually I only got rooked once, which is a surprise.) And I remembered years ago seeing some cels for Yellow Submarine in a store window in NYC. I had the cash to buy two of them, and was tempted, but instead took the funds to the vinyl LP outlet down the street instead, and for years I kicked myself for not getting the unique, original art instead.

So one day on eBay -- golly! real animation cels from CCS! and not for a whole lot (at least opening bids)! I bought one, then ran across Anime Chaos (later SMJ) and bought a couple more. And then a few more. And then ... as I got more experience, I could see that some were nicer than others, and if you watched, you could pick up "that" cel, one from a memorable scene. My goals grew as I could see my opportunities grow.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I absolutely fell in love with CCS, and at a tough time in my life, when I was disheartened about many things. I felt myself running low in interests and ambitions, and didn't really think anything could lift me high again. And then -- those fansubs! I can remember watching one episode and finding myself waking up in the middle of the night thinking about something in it. And it surprised me over and over, even as I watched episodes with my analytical academic goggles on, and yet at some point I'd find myself genuinely moved, really astonished by the way that the story touched me. I kept waiting for the story to get stale, to jump the shark, to become sentimental and cliched. And it never did.

And good stuff was there to buy, and for money within my budget. It was, in retrospect, a healing time for my personality, and for once a new hobby was the source of wellness rather than of sickness.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

I credit my friend Vapalla for this development. She and I shared a love for CCS and some other series, but she was the more widely experienced collector. We shared a SMJ account for about 2 years, and so I watched her scan YHJ and pick out artistically brilliant pieces from a wide diversity of series. Some of her interests became mine as well -- A Tree of Palme and Hyper Police in particular. And so as CCS pickings began to become slimmer, I learned strategies to look for series that were still plentiful on the market and worth cultivating as new interests.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

Um ... I really am learning to place my bids more carefully. I think from here on my new pieces will be more likely paper than plastic, simply because the demands of conserving acetate are going to be more expensive and time-consuming from now on. So I'd like to add somewhat to the CGI collections that I have begun, but in ways that help me understand the production of that series and of animation in general. (Something you'll see when I reopen with a new "Quirky Gallery" of Tenshi ni Narumon sketches.)

[cutiebunny]

I'm going to resist the temptation to be "Kurosensei, Terminator of Conversations" and move this to a special forum that only I can access.

Did I write something I shouldn't have? I didn't think I offended anyone, but if I did, it was not intentional and I apologize.

[sensei]

No, it's my bad. I accidentally sabotaged majinuub's attempt to get the Open House project moving by trying to do something helpful and ended up putting it in a forum where no one could visit or add to it. The repercussions of that are still reverberating in some sections of Beta: it seems that no one currently active on Beta actually knows how to fix this problem. So I was just promising not to do the same with this thread.

But maybe I'm just doomed to be a party-pooper anyhow ... Sorry to have left the impression that I was criticizing you, CB. My thanks to you for starting a useful and interesting thread--sincerely meant!

Maybe it's just time for me to be silent for a while. After I announce my update tomorrow or Monday.

[Jadeduo]

Let's get this sucker going again! No one has posted in a while! ^_^

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

God, I can't even remember... @_@ it's been so long since I started! I know I have always been interested in animation and it's workings. I was and still am a big Disney kid, but putting together a Disney collection while at the end of college and moving into the workforce was not... let's say feasible. I'd been watching Sailor Moon and Anime since 1996, and one day I came across Christy's site, which is no longer up but I believe she still has the bulk of her collection up on RS, (what is left of it, mostly SMR Movie Cels). At the time, she had the best Jupiter collection on the net, and I was like, I can do that! Jupiter is my favorite character, and it was definitely something to aspire to! So I bought my very first cel from Jupiter's first episode 25 from her site, she was just starting to purge in 2002, in the next couple of years she moved out of collecting almost permanently except for her SMR Movie Collection. So there is the early base of my Jupiter collection, my goals in collecting were to try and keep in a reasonable budget. You are never going to find $1000 cel in my gallery, I am very practical that way, and in the early days if a cel hit over $200 I was out. From that first Sailor Jupiter Cel, I moved into three other Animes with VERY SPECIFIC Characters, I was going to collect, DBZ-Goku (Still do!), GW-Duo and Heero (Sporadically), and Tenchi Muyo Universe - Ryoko (Out).

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

With Sailor Moon, by far not the first Magical Girl Anime, however, it was the one that really made the connection with the 90s girl in me, Girl Power! And Jupiter herself, was a strong, independent, yet still feminine character. I really connected with her on a fundamental, hey, that's me level! ^_^

With Dragonball Z, it was all about how I wish more men were sweet and approachable like Goku. Just more, more of everything... Also he is very lovely eye candy... Not every thought has to be deep.

With CCS and Gundam Wing, this was always about my OTP's for each show. Heero/Duo and Yuki/Toya, both their perfect matches in every way, all broken and scarred but they seemed to fit each other in the broken places in a way that touched my inner romantic. I never got much from GW, as the competition was always really high for pieces and it almost always took a backseat to my more prominent, SM, DBZ, and CCS collections. Also I branched out more into overall CCS, mostly because while I still focus on Yuki/Toya I have always adored the twisty relationships of CCS, from Tomoyo/Sakura to Sakura/Li. Also the prices don't hurt either ^_^ Although lately they have been overall VERY weird, like a yoyo.

I have gotten into a myriad of other series, all for different reasons, but only sporadically and never really with the focus that I have the main three.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

I haven't really changed my focus much, well, maybe a little. In Sailor Moon, I have broadened my horizons a bit, I have started peripherally looking at my scout for my sign, I have always wanted to collect her but prices are in the insane realm. I also have started to include some nice Sailor Moon cels from key scenes that are near and dear to my heart. I have also started looking for certain Chibi-usa pieces, because she reminds me of a Cousin whom I was very close with when she was young, before she hit her early 20s and became selfish. Out of nostalgia.

In CCS I have also broadened to include Sakura, Li and Tomoyo... see above ^_^

I have also added some new series, I have gone really hardcore on Saiyuki Burial, Loveless, and Tenshi ni Narumon. I am going to have to agree with CB... Sensei's site... it's like the drug dealer of cel collectors, I only watched Tennimon because of him and stupidly fell in love, so there starts the Tennimon collection. He however cannot claim pushing me into CCS, CLAMP's lovely manga did that. ^_^

Saiyuki and Loveless are also all their manga creators faults. With Saiyuki I hated the anime, I can't even watch it Studio Pierrot had to have been on crack when they were animating most of the episodes are nigh on unwatchable, and then I discovered Burial, also the movies are pretty good too as far as animation quality. So when I discovered those it was much easier to justify purchasing art.

With Loveless I did not know about the anime until a year ago, and then ugh, the art! So pretty! Gotta catch em all! ^_^

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

My plan is to continue on the path I am on there are plans to add a new series to my collection, but right now it is still in infancy stages. So I have not posted any of the art yet that I have acquired. I also need to make sure, of the direction I am going with the new collection before I make any commitments to the gallery. I also need to do more research into the process and see if I can start matching up animators to sketches/cels. I have a lot of pieces from older animes so for most of what I have there should be a bigger body of work for the animators that are attached to my pieces, which hopefully should make it easier to match things up.

Also I definitely want to continue adding to my Jupiter collection, this is the first time in my history of collecting that I am the only Jupiter collector still active in the community. This makes me VERY sad, but it also means that now there is less competition ^_~ With CCS I want to actually watch the entire series with designs on putting together an actual screenshotted wishlist, as to date I have just been buying pieces pretty willy nilly. With DBZ, my requirements have always been loose, so the goal is to keep adding nice Goku cels at fair prices, but to be realistic Goku has never commanded the prices Vegeta has. My goal for GW is to add maybe one piece a year, and that is pretty aggressive for me, lol. For Saiyuki Burial there has been no art in years that has hit the market so I have been stalking all the sites keeping an eye out. For Loveless it is just a case of stalking the sites, and slowly relieving private collections of their hoards.

Well I hope everyone starts posting again this is a nice nostalgia thread thanks, CB!

Jadeduo

[theultimatebrucelee]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

Discovered YJA then and proceeded to search for collectables from Tokimeki Memorial series, found out about cels during my search and thought they were quite beautiful, so I got a cel of my favor character of the series...then another one pop'd up, and then another. Then I saw the zenbu auctions on Mandarake and wanted to get a Kikyo cel, but I only had a few scenes in mind and they were quite pricy at the time(whats the logic behind the kissing scene going for 1K? And its not even kikyo kissing kagome or sango). For sketches, I would have to say inferior complexity. I've done drawing from as long as I could remember until part way college. So I always admired, sometimes even puzzled by the talent and skills reflected by those amazing artworks.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

With production artwork, I focus only on the specific characters, not series, this has been true since the start. I can be really impressed by a series overall and enjoy it immensely, but if there is no particular character that 1. strikes me as memorable AND 2. fits my collecting criteria then they are good as dead on my path of collecting. I also collect characters that impressed me in particular ways from average and below series, since my collection is character based.The exception is if the image is striking to me, then it bypasses the other requirements.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

I've watched too many series over the years, its especially true in recent years since I started this hobby,so I can't just collect from a few selected series. No matter how memorable a character at one point was, their importance to me fades overtime, and new characters then takes over, hence my collection is more sketch focused...I suppose I could just stop watching new anime all together, but at this point I'm addicted to what the newer series has too offer, new stories, new ideas, consistently improving graphic and effect(I've always been the shallow one). Also besides the fact that I reevaluate the love I have for the old characters at each stage of my collecting career, I also want to be able to discover new character that I can collect from, even though that's an extremely bad idea financial speaking.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

I consider my career as a production art collector at mature stage at this point, so at most, I'm looking to sizable expand for one or two more characters, while possibly adding more to the less important characters as well as getting rid of the no longer important ones.

[kizu]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?
I truly had no goals. I liked Saitou so I bought doujinshi first for a few years then something tipped me off to anime cels (can't remember what) and I thought, I'll buy just one of Saitou. LOL. Sure...

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I loved Rurouni Kenshin as a whole but I won't shrink to say I love Saitou and the Shinsengumi more. But RK was my first love, when I watched the OVAs I thought, could anime really be this good? This serious? It's has historical people? Really? The TV version was jarring coming from the high production OVAs and just a shift in overall tone but actually I felt like it was a better companion for me day to day, I wanted to smile a bit more and "believe" a bit more in "goodness" - obviously this time in my life wasn't too great either and I was escaping in various ways. The OVAs and TV series were not really comparable and I liked that the series offered shifts serious when I wanted and funny/light/fantastical when I needed. Collecting RK was a total pain, especially my favorite character Saitou and the Kenshin himself. In fact it took a while for me to get rid of the sticker shock. But these two characters in particular resonated with me a lot, Saitou in particular actually made me look beyond RK and I liked what I found.

Aside from RK of course, now there's PMK and Hakuoki. PMK was special because it was the first anime I saw that centered on the Shinsengumi but the artwork was really dry for many years. All I could get was rough sketches. I just about gave up but a nice lady here helped me put together a small collection that I'm now happy with. I think I liked PMK not just because it's Shinsengumi but I can identify with the rather weak hero Tetsunosuke. As for Hakuouki, although i didn't quite like the vampire elements, it was actually a good story of the Shinsengumi and surprisingly close to the events that I knew which took me years to figure out since I'm not a native speaker. What's funny is I sometimes found myself wishing Hakuouki came out a few years earlier so I didn't have to spend all those time scanning kanji (which was so inaccurate so kanji dic was my friend), translating kanji online and trying to make sense of it. LOL... But yeah I don't mind spending money for the Shinsengumi. I'm a sucker for those shows where struggle/honor/honesty is the overarching theme. Maybe because I believe there's not a lot of that left in the world.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?
I didn't change my focus at all actually. I still collect RK and Shinsengumi. I have a few other cels that's not related to these, but they are collected because they fit the same themes/values I previously mentioned. I would say that perhaps the change that happened over the last 3 years is that I've allowed paper to be sizably represented in my gallery. I was adamant at first that I only wanted cels, but there's really not much choice when it comes to the later animes like Hakuouki. Paper it is.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?
To be honest about it, I've bought entire galleries/collections in the past but I ended up with a small sampling of artwork that isn't really part of my collecting interest. I would like to cull those eventually. BUt more important than that is I really would like to finally settle on how I will display my collection or not. Things like, where should I really display them RS? Off-RS where there's more control? How do I want to display them? Always available or do it as temporary exhibits? I would like to be able to go back and properly curate but I'm a bit overwhelmed with the collection at the moment, especially with the paper collection, especially if they are "roughs". I wish I had a lot of time to do this and was more diligent in the early part of my collecting. I lost a lot of information especially with my dealings. Initially I thought it doesn't really matter because I have no plans to really sell off someday, but I'm finding that I do kind of care about the information because it's part of the collection and the collecting journey. It's like when I read comments I wrote for some of my cels, I go... "Did I really write that?" And I laugh. It's fun though I might cringe if I truly knew how much I spent.

[Digital]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

I didn't have any goals. I got hooked on anime when Robotech aired back in the 80s. That led me to meet a fellow fan at university who introduced me to anime proper through the original Bubblegum Crisis (on laserdisc no less). Fast forward a few years, and Animeigo is selling special box sets of BGC on videotape. In one of their newsletters (which I bet I still have around here somewhere), they made mention of a few original anime cels they had from the series. Based on the description over the phone, I bought one. Then another. This was somewhere in the mid 90s, and I guess I had a collection, small and limited as it was.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I would occasionally come across cels for sale in anime shops, but it was a few years before I bought anything else. I think it was a Ranma cel from a dealer in Houston. Must have been late 90s, early 2000s. Then in 2003, I discovered ebay had lots of cels on offer. I started buying cels from shows I liked, or simply cels that caught my eye. For about 3-5 years, I bought anything and everything that caught my eye. Cels from shows I liked, cels I had no idea where they came from. Mostly it was about cels that have a certain style about them, that showed care and love in their creation. There's something aesthetically pleasing to me about most of the cels in my collection. That's my main criteria (aside from favorite characters).

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

Can't say I ever changed, but around 2006 or 2008, I just stopped buying much in the way of cels, and shifted my time and efforts toward other hobbies. Frankly, the transition to digital meant that the cels I wanted weren't available, and rilezu aren't exactly cheap. I slowly but surely slowed down my acquisitions, until it basically stopped. Don't think I've bought more than one or two cels or sketches since 2010.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

I honestly don't know. I have a few cels framed on the walls (in very dark places), and I occasionally look at my cels, but mostly they just relax in their place of honor. My other interests - like live music - have priority right now. I'm still an anime fan, but not at the pace which I previously maintained. I don't even know what the current shows are. I'll probably have to decide what to do with them one of these days.

[ginga123]

well... i guess it's time for some reflection, insight, and follow up.

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

i never mentioned this initially in the reply of the first thread. however, my goal was to learn more about the animation process and the hard work and art itself behind the camera lenses. my perception was that it was more to it than just what was depicted on screen. it was a piece of history. i was determined to find an answer. boy, did i find one!

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I really appreciate how Sailor Moon and its characters depicted young women with respect. The depiction of the Mistress to me represents a forward thinking depiction (at its time) of empowerment, woman as the dominant sex, and 1940's film noir "femme fatale." generally speaking, on the Mistress and for other female characters that are in my collection today, the depiction of woman in either strong leadership and entrepreneurship roles; or, the use of sexuality to gain power for personal or professional gain socially or moral/ethnically still is prevalent to the social climate that we live in presently. i realize today that my collection is filled "femme fatales" and the men who love and cherish them. now, that's empowerment.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

the change of focus is slowly progressing and depicted online when i transitioned to sketch collecting and began focusing on characters as a group. some anime in my collection is specifically geared towards a male demographic. i believe i may be attempting to create a balance between the depiction of man and woman. however, that logic is arguable or openly debatable. another point to mention would be that i really did intend to leave the hobby several years ago. i am glad i stayed and for the right reasons. i have slowed down dramatically since then. i haven't purchased a cel since 2014. my first sketch purchases of this year were from the 2013 series Hakkenden and at Animazement with Cutiebunny, Jadeduo and Itadakimasu.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

i am not sure. i believe i am still working on that now at my own pace and terms.

[star-phoenix]

Here are my responses:

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

When I first started collecting 17 years ago, I was completely into Fushigi Yuugi and Inuyasha (2000-ish for Inuyasha), and mainly zeroed in on characters that I liked, specifically male characters. I did not think about spending "too much" on the hobby at the time since I was quite young, still in school, and jobless.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

17 years ago, it had to do with what series I enjoyed at the time and what characters I had a crush on.



If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

In short, I grew up. When I started medical school back in 2006, I had a very strong look at my collection and began concentrating on pieces that had a more historical appeal. Then when the cel market "crashed" in 2007-2008, a HUGE majority of my Anime collection dropped to a mere fraction of the price I paid for it and I lost a ton of money in my collection when I tried to reduce it to only the pieces I really loved. That was when I became way more focused and far more critical. Additionally, as a doctor, I found my self becoming more of a teacher to students and giving more lectures. So, that is why my website has developed to a more educational based site featuring the art.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

My goal is to one day use my art to promote the education of animation history. Would love to set up an exhibition in the near future. But, with the current work, it may be a bit difficult for a couple more years. That, and I am still working on building my collection.

[GuyvarIII]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

Initially, my goal was to own cels from my favorite anime, the late 1980s to early 1990s Guyver OVA. I had collected the Max Factory Guyver kits, and wanted more Guyver stuff.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

Before I had even started collecting cels, I was already a fan of “Cult Japanimation” thanks to Video Journeys, my local video rental store, as well as Suncoast, and later The Complete Anime Guide 2nd Edition. When I first uploaded my cels to a Crosswinds site, my idea was to share my collection of cels from cartoons I had enjoyed or was currently watching; a lot of “cult cinema” and OAV anime like: Akira, The Guyver, Devilman, the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA, MD Geist, Wings of Honneamise, Robot Carnival, Neo-Tokyo, the BubbleGum Crisis OVAs, the Sol Bianca OVAs, Genocyber, the Fist Of The North Star movie, the Vampire Hunter D OVA, 8-Man After, Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Lupin, AD Police Files, Darkside Blues, Crying Freeman, Guy, Urotsukidoji, etc.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

As an animation fan, I've seen many more shows, both older and newer than my original favorites. Adding them has helped to expand and make my collection seem more complete, because, when you watch old shows like, Ideon, and then the more modern shows, you can really see how much anime references itself.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

I want to continue to collect cels and sketches. I 'll probably never lose my focus on primarily having a collection of anime from the 1980s to mid 1990s, but I hope to find art from more post cel anime that I like, to cover even more shows, and to have a greater mix of newer and older anime.

For my Rubberslug gallery... well, I really need to update my Rubberslug gallery. But, I think that general anime fans, not just cel collectors, while looking for art from shows they already know and like, might be introduced to other shows that they will like. And since I mostly choose cels based on aesthetic decisions, I hope that even people who don't like the shows from which I collect can still enjoy viewing my collection simply as interesting images.

[lunacels]

I've been reading everyone's responses in this thread for a while now...it's nice to see everyone's perspectives. I've been resistant to sharing mine since my collection is fairly limited in scope, but here it goes.

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

Nearly all of my collection was focused on Sailor Moon, and still is today. I bought my first cel in 1998. It was nothing too special--just a cel of Naru and the girls running away from the Minotaur in the beginning of the R season. I can't remember exactly which online source I purchased from, nor did I intend on embarking on a new hobby. I just loved the series and had been collecting the soundtracks and art books, and was impressed that one could actually own a unique piece of artwork. So I bought it as a one-off, and when it arrived, I was smitten. I ended up haunting eBay and "Keep Track" on cels.org, and purchased many more cels over the next five years. I was in college at the time and not terribly wealthy, so my purchases were usually frugal, but not always. (And I was sleepy in more than one early class due to waiting on late-night updates at Taro!) I was initially focused on having just one nice portrait-style cel of each of the main characters, but it eventually grew from there.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

I loved then (and still do now) cels with a good representation of the character design. I was not terribly into action shots or "big" moments. I truly just loved the artistic style. To this day I've only watched a limited number of anime series, but fell wildly in love with Utena. The artwork and music is incredible, and so my collection expanded a bit to include a selection from that series. However, those cels were off the charts back then when it came to pricing, so I mostly kept out of that and stayed with Sailor Moon.

Unfortunately as time wore on during my initial collecting phase, I began shelling out for cels that were "valuable" due to the inclusion of a rare character or scene, even if it was a cel that didn't particularly appeal to me or hold my attention. (Bank cels, I'm looking at you.) Consequently there was a lot of rotation in and out of my "for sale" page. I think that's one of the reasons I began to lose interest. I had poor impulse control, because there was always that nagging voice that once the cel is gone that's it, and sequence mates are hard to come by. The pressure of the check out system on Taro or the sniping bids on eBay appealed to the worst of my competitive nature, and were directly related to many purchases I would later regret.

If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

Eventually I graduated college, finished residency, and began working in the real world. I had invested a lot of time html-coding and graphic editing for my own website, but was finding it harder to find time to maintain. I was also discovering Italian shoe designers and that took a chunk out of my fun money budget, so by 2005 additions to my cel collection had slowed to a barely register-able trickle. After living out-of-state for a professional traineeship for a couple weeks in 2006, I discovered upon returning home that I was two days late renewing my web hosting company (seriously people, two days) and they had deleted everything. I was very sad about losing all my scans and graphics, and never got around to putting things back together. I was also disillusioned with a collection that held a significant number of pricey cels that I should never have purchased. So I realized I was ready to move on and sold off a good amount of my collection, including cels I did and didn't love.

I moved, got married, had a baby, and one day realized that Toei was rebooting the story with Sailor Moon Crystal. I was there to tune in for the first episode. The series definitely has its highs and lows, but it inspired me to break out the manga and my old cel books. I am ashamed to admit at this point that I had not cracked open a cel book since many years before, but thankfully they were at least stored carefully and all were still in good condition. My two-year old gazed over my shoulder and asked who each character was, and I realized while sharing each cel with him how much I still loved my collection. I started searching for my old cel-related haunts, only to find that many galleries had closed and the old online retailers were gone. But I was giddy when I realized my old Rubberslug gallery (thankfully put up in 2002 before my personal site crash) was still kicking around, and set about updating. I rescanned and labeled some cels, and made a few new purchases. That "few" seems to have snowballed, and I admit with some chagrin that I have more than doubled my Sailor Moon cel collection in the last year. I'm chalking it up to having more disposable income than in my college days, so I've been able to survive the bidding wars for a handful of the really great cels that have come up on Yahoo Japan and Mandarake in the last few months. But I've grown up thankfully, and am much more focused on limiting purchases to those cels that really speak to me. Nowadays, most of the Sailor Moon cels that generate intense competition aren't on my radar at all. When I purchased my one and only cel of Neo Queen Serenity a few weeks ago, it was because I was completely taken by its beauty, and not to "upgrade" my gallery. Conversely I've picked up some absolutely charming (to me) pieces that no one else would care about, like a cel of sleepy Luna (for the big-ticket price of like $20). My gallery is now far more personal, and it's a much healthier place to be.

Primarily I am drawn to cels that feature solid artwork, and there are both great and poor examples of these in Sailor Moon (the style is nothing if not inconsistent). I still like the portrait-style cels but my collection has definitely expanded to include more diversity. I'm also a big fan of cels with backgrounds. I'm not completely devoted to the idea that every background has to match, but I love finding ones that match the tone of the watercolor backgrounds used in the series.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

I really regretted some of the cels I sold back in 2005-2006; some I've found in others' galleries, and some are lost to the ages. I'm always on the fence on whether I should offer to buy them back...there's 3 or 4 that I would really love to see again. There's also the cel of Iron Mouse that I always seriously loved (used to be in Luna Regina's gallery and is now elsewhere--it may be one of the primary cels that tempted me into collecting). Other than those, I'm fine with not making any new additions for a while, as I love my collection in its current state. I'm also toying with the idea of commissioning some backgrounds. These tell half the story and the overall presentation is so much better for the gallery. Not sure where to go for those, so if you know of a watercolor artist, let me know!

All that said, buying new cels now makes me nervous, because conservation is increasingly on my mind. Vinegar syndrome scares the bejeesus out of me and I think it's important to preserve these pieces for future generations. Owning a large collection is a pretty big responsibility, so I'm OK with keeping mine on the small-ish side.

[frozentime]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

Actually, my only goal was to get that one cel. In fact, I had intentionally put off buying anything to keep from starting the habit, but I thought that one would be special enough to satisfy me for good.

With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

Overall it's probably about half emotional attachment to the show and half the art, though it leans much more heavily towards the art for the ones I collect more. When I started, there wasn't so much to sort through either, so it seemed reasonable to collect from a wide variety, instead of focussing. It was also a different market then. You pretty much picked from what a dealer had available at a Con, and had to make up your mind before it was all picked over. There were only 2 or maybe 3 chances a year to buy cels, unless you did some extreme traveling.


If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

I never really changed focus. I still collect much of the same things, or at least similar style... though I have added shikishi and other sketches to the list.

Where would you like your collection to go from here?

At this point I'm not looking to expand by any large amount. I would rather buy fewer, but harder to find items. This includes specific cels, instead of just nice images of specific characters in specific settings, and backgrounds from certain movies. If I could find about 15 specific Items, I think I would essentially be done and content. Most likely though, I'll be lucky to ever see, much less buy, even 7 of these, so I'm sure even this will keep me in the game looking for years to come.

[ReiTheJelly]

Back when you first started your collection what were your goals?

When I started my collection 12 years ago, I just wanted one or two cels of my favorite characters from all my favorite shows (dozens and dozens of them). I was a poor college student and was horrified by the thought of spending even $20 on a single cel or sketch. Hah! --- the joke's on me, right? Though I still haven't broken the $1k mark, which I'm personally proud of. But I've come close a few times.
Originally, I started collecting CCS card spirit cels because it was too expensive for me to collect Sakura's battle costumes.


With a large universe of series out there what was it about certain ones caused you to wish spend hard earned funds to collect?

In the beginning, there was only the "hey, I can afford this one!" reason. As time went along, I became more selective about my purchases, choosing to focus on either the quality of the artwork or the scene portrayed.


If you did change your focus, what caused you to do so?

Money. Once I graduated, I actually had some to spend.
Availability. Over time, the availability of quality cels has gone down. As my collection became more sophisticated, I needed to be pickier with my purchases.


Where would you like your collection to go from here?

I love my collection dearly, but at some point I would like to cull it of everything except my absolute favorites. I doubt I'll even recoup a fraction of what I originally paid, but it's time to thin my cel books and send many pieces to new homes. Ideally, I'd like my gallery to only have a few sections when I'm done: CCS, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, Rainbow Brite, and miscellaneous CLAMP (with only the best items from my other categories). Maybe Inuyasha can come, too.

I'd LOVE to add more CCS and Miyuki to my gallery, but the pickings have been so slim that I've essentially stopped browsing for new cels entirely. I'm relying on the goodwill of my few remaining cel buddies to e-mail me if they see any good sales or auctions...