Lightning Updaters, Slow Updaters, and Black Hole Collectors

[Krafty]

Looking over some of the recent posts here, it's sad that there are some individuals sending abusive messages to other collectors. Those people exist in small numbers but don't make up the majority who are happy for you to own the artwork and even happier to view it on your webpage. Regardless of anyone's reaction I think it's important to showcase these pictures. They bring a lot of joy to the owners and gallery visitors and remind us how great anime art is.
Keep it up!

[JWR]

I know in my case my updating has slowed down to a crawl over the last few years. Mainly due to it has been hard to find anything out there that strikes our interest to spend 500 yen for let alone 50,000 yen. The main series we collect have gotten to the point that the same cels/sketches have been on YJ for months if not a year or more at the same prices.
On rare times someone on YJ decides to sell off stuff that has not seen the light of day for 20 years (I lucked into a bunch of Eyecatch & Hankens from Duel a few years back) but all in all not much happening.
The other problem is for the newer shows that we might like none of the artwork if being put for sale by the studios. So that also slows down collecting for us.

Somewhere back in the pages someone asked about those with massive collections. Somehow over the years I guess I qualify to the point that once I found out I had well over 1K in images up at one time in my gallery I actually went in and "pruned back" and placed a lot under password to keep them on the gallery just not on public display. Before that time only the NSFW ones were password protected.

As far as displaying our collection, We both are happy to share what we choose to collect with those that wish to view them. Those who have attended the cel collector dinners at AX over the years have had the chance to view a lot of the cel books as well as some framed items we grabbed off the walls to bring with us to share. We collect what we like and are glad when others share an interest.

The other reason our collection is online is that it is a record for insurance purposes in case the worst was ever to happen.

[eternaltorture]

Slow updater/ black hole collector

I want to post more of my collection but I'm still waiting on a scanner. I like my photos to look high quality, right now I'm just using ones from the previous owner.

There are a few obscure series I've amassed over 20 pieces of production art from and I don't think I will be sharing them anytime soon. Maybe in a few years? I'm paranoid and don't want competition as they are still fairly cheap

[sensei]

There are a few obscure series I've amassed over 20 pieces of production art from and I don't think I will be sharing them anytime soon. Maybe in a few years? I'm paranoid and don't want competition as they are still fairly cheap

I understand: no one likes sudden competition for a favored series that once was yours for the opening bid. But I find that sometimes quick buying will make the source dig a little deeper for more items. Scanning "recent updates" in Rubberslug reminds me that there are many better-known series that collectors are falling all over to collect, so the risk of attracting attention to something obscure is probably minimal. Happily obscure series sometimes have excellent art and are obscure because the studio didn't put enough effort into the screenplay. (I'm thinking "Yumeria," great art, dumb plot.)

[noildoof]

I update pretty much as soon as I get the new cel(s). Usually I only get a few in at a time, maybe 10 at the most. So it's not too hard to get everything scanned and uploaded. Only pan cels are hard to scan, since I have to make multiple scans and then photoshop them together. The only time I've ever taken more than a day to update was with my latest haul, simply due to the sheer volume. It was something like 40 cels or so, with multiple pan cels.

I share my stuff online due in part to conservation. I don't trust that my scan files will never ever get deleted by accident for all of time, so it's safer to upload them where they can be around for a very long time. I also don't think it's fair to pick up something really nice, or win something in a bidding war, and have it just disappear into the void for everyone else. With my huge Lemon Angel pan cel I actually made free hi-res downloadable posters. There's still a fanbase for that and I wanted to give a little something back.

The only times I've ever been hesitant to upload something are when I get cels from anime that are extremely disturbing, and not in the fun way. I recently picked up a few cels from disturbing ultra-obscure OVAs I never thought I'd find cels from, and they were only a few bucks each so I went ahead and got them. When debating whether or not to upload them, ultimately I decided that since the actual OVAs are already easy to find online I might as well. So they're on my site with warnings that the anime isn't worth watching for any reason whatsoever.

[tarakatsuki]

I am definitely a slow updater. I don't see any reason it needs to be rushed. I do scan as soon as I receive something, and then from there I might upload it to my gallery in a day or a year. Who knows? These days I am preferring to wait and post something until after I have the scene identified.

[cutiebunny]

I am very guilty of not updating my gallery, and there are items I've had since 2007(?) that I have yet to add...It's strange that, even though most of these people have stopped collecting and I have moved on to focus on original art, I still operate under the assumption that, if I update too quickly after a win, someone will target me.

Well hello, 2015-me

You know what, I still have stuff from 2007 that I have yet to post. Not sure when those CCS cel hankens are ever going to see the light of the internet.

I still subscribe to the last line. However, it's not so much collectors now, but there are some conventions that don't like it when you talk about your experiences with the event and their guests. I was banned by one for the most bizarre reasons, which included things like "You sold a sketch you got at the convention" (the sketch in question was given to another person who later opted to sell it) to "writing about your experience with our guests makes them look bad".

I think the hobby has changed since I last posted on this topic. There's a lot of money and attention being paid to the hobby now from art collectors who have only recently gotten into art collecting thanks, in part, to large auction houses now taking a sudden interest in them. I think most collectors are black hole now. I would like to hope that it isn't due to harassment, but after seeing videos of Japanese collectors upset because they feel Westerners own all the good stuff, I'm not so sure.

[ginga123]

Hi. It’s been a long time since I’ve responded to anything. After I sold almost everything about five years ago, I went into a hard core cutting myself off from the hobby and auctions. I sold the remaining of my collection due to personal reasons.

It wasn’t until 2020-2021 that I thought I’d snoop around RS and Rinkya, but not do anything about it. That was until I rediscovered Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl on my saved searches list on an auction site and bought Curt’s boxes of Chobits sketches around 2018. But I didn’t want anyone to know about my oversized Elda and Freya Chobits sketch set and the GCPG photocopy layouts at the time. I still wrestle with the thought of taking them down and “black hole” them.

I used to be a very quick updater; however, I did receive backlash from time to time via RS feedback from now non-active people and those who stopped collecting altogether. That’s when I started to update my gallery every 3-5mo, to avoid it before I stopped completely. I’m still not completely active, as most of my time and money has been devoted to paying living expenses. I can no longer afford to be regularly active; a quick updater; and go after the expensive stuff. I try to buy art on the cheap end of the spectrum and choose to be a slow updater.