What experiences have effected your collecting?

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JWR
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What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by JWR »

Over the years I can assume we have had something happen both good and bad that have shaped our collecting experience.

The one that stands out to me was a "wake up call" event involving a Inu Yasha auction held on YJ.

I was pretty much in my first year of collecting cels at the time and coming from collecting comic book art and the prices I used to spend for them cels still seemed to be a lot cheaper due to that current exchange rate was very favorable to us in the USA.

The auction in question was from Episode 13 where Inu Yasha first turns into his human form. The cel scene was of Inu Yasha in human form resting his head on Kagome's "lap pillow".
Now up to this point most IY cels I had bought were $200.00 US or less so I figure this one might go for around 400-500 max. I was not even in the country let alone the neighborhood.
I dropped out after the auction pass the 1k amount and I don't remember the final total but I think it may have reached 2k or more.

I found out that I really needed to do a lot more research into the "hobby" to figure out what could effect pricing and then target specific items and set limits on what I would be willing to spend. Up to that time I was in the "oooh that looks nice and it's cheap" phase and had no clue what made certain cels worth more than others such as what an A1END designated or what an eyecatch was. It was after a few months "crash course" that I started to get serious and focus on finding cels from the 1st nine episodes of Ranma 1/2 of Akane with her hair being long and have built up a large enough of a collection to have it's own gallery section and be one of the things that sets my collecting apart from others.

So what experiences in collecting have made you examine and become serious to the point of putting out the effort and funds to this hobby?
"Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment." Harlan Ellison
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Re: What experiences have affected your collecting?

Post by cutiebunny »

Interesting topic.

I've gone through a few phases, largely in response to the market and how fellow collectors were behaving. I was a serious collector when I first started in June 2003, having already gotten my feet wet before as an avid Japanese Sailor Moon card collector. My initial reason for collecting, in addition to owning almost every Japanese SM card produced, was to buy artwork not featured in any of the card sets.

The first big change to my collecting behavior came in 2005 when the bidding between Sailor Moon collectors became vindictive. There were certain collectors who were very active in the Rubberslug/Anime-Beta community that would claim auctions on a weekly basis as being their wishlist cels and demand everyone else to back off. When I wouldn't obey and would outbid and post my winnings on RS, these same people began to mark me. It became pretty dangerous to have a wishlist as someone would target it and then hold hostage that cel for something you owned that they wanted. There are several people on this board who, to this day, do not have a wishlist because of this reason. When the supply dried up and the prices for the higher end stuff skyrocketed, I made the decision to move on from cels to original art.

My current phase started last year. I still collect sketches from the artists and buy those whenever I see something I like, but I've moved more towards funding operations, either through various Kickstarter projects or through connections. I like knowing that I helped things to succeed, even though I will receive little, if any, credit. While it does tie up my finances, it also has made me really ask myself if I want something before casting a bid.
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Keropi »

Could someone move this thread to the General Production Art section?

More people might see it there. :)
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by JWR »

Keropi wrote:Could someone move this thread to the General Production Art section?

More people might see it there. :)
Easily done
"Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment." Harlan Ellison
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Krafty »

Nice one, JWR, I'm sure people have all sorts of responses to share.

For me, a number of experiences in particular effected my collecting so I'll mention a few that spring to mind;

1) Love of the anime itself. When I adore a form of art I like to own a piece of it, whether it's a film, poster, drawing, LP etc. With anime art, as soon as I know artwork is available I'll do what I can to own some of it- especially if it features a favourite scene/character. It's such a positive association, I feel it brings me a little closer to that scene and demonstrates a respect for it too. The amount I collect is determined by availability and price!

2) Thrill of the hunt. The natural high I get when seeing/acquiring a sought-after piece keeps me engaged with the hobby and is (again) closely linked to availability and price.

3) The internet. I guess this comes under 'availability' but when I began collecting, cels collecting was a tricky thing to do because it was done via mail order catalogues (primarily MVM here in the UK) and I chose what I wanted to buy by looking at a black & white photocopy, LOL. I've still kept some of the old booklets for nostalgia sake. It's now great to deal with so many international dealers/Auction sites/Other collectors, it's really changed the whole experience for me, for the better.
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Jadeduo »

Ooo Interesting topic! ^_^

I started in 2002ish - I don't remember it was so long ago, but I do remember really looking up to Ani-chan's collection, she had the best Jupiter Collection on the web and I wanted to echo that! So started the insanity!

The hacking of doom (2004? 2005ish? so long ago I don't remember the dates, I would have to look up past BWAs to figure it out) affected me immensely it still makes me wary of posting things immediately after winning to this day...

And I do echo in that Cutiebunny is right around 2005-2007 the SM collecting community got mean, I actually was luckily enough taking a bit of a break, (I was lurking but I saw some things...) at the time so I lucked out on missing that fiasco. TG! But SM collectors do have that reputation, and I am trying my very best to work on that! I have met some really mean/douchey SM collectors. But I have also made a few friends for life, even some who are not actively collecting anymore! So it has been my mission for us to all get along and work on being nicer to each other, who knows who you will come to cherish as a life long friend!

Sensei has influenced me greatly in the way that he presents his gallery and the amount of research that goes into each piece, as well as being a Beta Cheerleader as well! And most recently I realized I had the ability to recognize the artist just by looking at a sketch. I was buying some lower priced genga sets to give away at the Yaoi-con panel and I picked up a Nabari no Ou set, which conveniently was animated by JC Staff, I open the set and three pages in there it sits, a correction by Nakamura Yumi-Sensei! I am like 8O so I go to check who the Chief Animation Director for that show and low and behold it is her! ^_^;; Someone at Yaoi-con will be very lucky! ^_^;;

The CG revolution did not change my habits right away, but slowly I am coming around... It didn't really start until 2008 when the first Burial Layout sets hit Mandarake, but since then I have been looking to expanding my Horizons although intermittently as the lovely painted plastic takes precedent. Saiyuki luckily is generally very reasonably priced so I should be good ^_^;; Loveless is another story LOL

The market slow down for the last two years was great for me I have gotten some great pieces at reasonable prices, but it looks like the market will be picking up again. I am going to have to spend more time on gallery maintenance if these CCS, DBZ, and SM prices continue to rise @_@ Which could be a win for all... Maybe?

And finally, I have made a new friend this year who has been trying to nudge me into Original Sketch Collecting... I can't say that I will ever be on par with her, but I think I might be persuaded to one day pick up a piece here or there. Or maybe wait in line with her at cons to see what we can shake loose ^_^;; Because if it's free, it's for me! *how did such a cheap person get into cel collecting* @_@
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by JustVan »

I started collecting in either 1999 or 2000. I was either fresh out of high school or in my first year of college. Money was tight and if I wanted a cel it meant dollar store dinners for a month, credit card debt or worse. But cels were pretty easy to come by back then. Every convention had a dealer or two, and they were on eBay. I never had an incredible collection back then, but I got a nice-sized gallery with a lot of $20 - $200 cels.

I think the last cel (actually it was a douga) I bought before I stopped was in 2004. After that I began liquidating some of the cels I had that I didn't have as great of attachments to (and some that I did, but which were worth money I needed). I think I sold off half my collection. In the end my entire collection filled less than one Itoya.

Now that I've started to collect again since moving to Japan, I've found my tastes are a lot more refined. I know what cels are worth now and my buys aren't so impulsive. I'm also able to justify buying more expensive cels because I have a job and can pay for them in a way I couldn't back when I started. I am definitely MUCH more focused on quality over quantity now in a way that I wasn't back when. When I went to cons I'd often feel like I HAD to buy a cel or else I'd go home from the convention disappointed. Now I don't feel that way. I have a small selection of shows and characters I look for artwork of. It's rare now that a show or character not on my pre-determined list gets picked up.

So I'm just a lot more picky and selective now. I'm also more open to making friends with other collectors. Not that I wasn't back then, but RS didn't exist and the cel forums that did just didn't lend themselves to making friends I guess.
JustVan's Cels: Unico, Escaflowne, Ranma ½, DBZ & more.
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Animechaos »

What changed my collecting habits was right when I started the deputy service. Back then I was still a huge Ryoko cel collector. (and I'm back into it now, trying to get some of my old pieces back)

A lot of what I get I use my own service to purchase. But early on ran into a bit of a conflict. A very good and nice customer of mine, back during Animechaos.com's hayday, was using the service too.

Well I had my eyes on a Ryoko cel and was waiting until the last minute to bid. (before we had the sniper system) I noticed another customer had already placed a bid on the same item. But thinking nothing of it proceeded to bid like I had planned....and eventually won the cel.

Once the item showed up at my house, I scanned and updated my personal gallery like I would with anything else I got. Next thing I know I'm getting hate mail and bashed on the forums for it...all from a collector I originally respected as a fellow Ryoko fan. Basically got accused of using my own business to sneak in or undercut others, which simply wasn't the case. I just bid like I always did and won. On top of that I know if I outbid a customer for something I want personally, I'm taking a double hit. The cost of the item, and the loss of the sale. That was the first time I ever ran into that scenario.

After that, for probably 5+ years, I hardly ever purchased anything using the service or in general. It was a massive turn-off to the hobby. Just a few items from here on Beta or other sites I had direct access to, a few buy-it-now goodies and pre-orders, but virtually nothing do deal with anime art. I took the stance that if a customer has their bid in, the item is off limits to myself. And I painfully missed out on a lot of good items that way.

It took a while to really get back into it, and I'm always on the hunt for items now. I had to remind myself the reason I started the business in the first place....I was a fan and collector first and foremost. It wasn't until recent that I finally took the gloves off and started collecting full time again.

Want to know something that really hurts? Finding an item on YHJ you're desperate for and getting outbid by your own customer. But then...on top of that...having it come in stock, getting to hold it in your hands, only to have to ship it off likely never to be seen again. Now that is a punch in the gut.
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by star-phoenix »

I really did not have any "big" happen to me that changed my collecting habits. In relation to collecting, I have had a couple of bad experiences where I ended up with overpaying for art and, due to whatever financial or ambitious reason, resold it for 10-20% of my original cost. That made me more particular about the market and more careful with my spending, generally speaking. I bought my first cel inn 1998-1999, which was a Tomahome OVA cel. Around 2007, I got into Disney vintage pieces. 2007 was the year that I was in the middle of medical school, and became more geared towards viewing my hobby as buying more pieces of history. I had also met a lot of gallery owners while living in California who had opened up the world of vintage art, which was a huge influence on me. I remember the time when someone had shown me a story board from Plane Crazy (1928) from Disney and had a price tag of $1.8 million . . . marked down from $8 million!!!! 8O This was also in 2007-2008. So, a lot of changing in my life, my interests, and especially, in myself during that time....
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by sensei »

Interesting thread, interesting responses.

I'd call out two memorable moments. One was obtaining this CCS cel, in my first year of collecting. (March 9, 2001, a saved email records.) Up to that point I'd ordered occasional cels that I liked for some reason or another, but not with any thought of being a real collector. I had them all in a Priority Mail envelope in my closet, and every so often I'd get this down and look at the cels, one by one, more for the color and gleam than for what they represented. And then this one came. It was a pan cel, brilliantly painted, and from a moment that I already knew well from my first run through CCS (on VHS fansub tapes). It was the first cel that made me think ... if I used a little more patience, didn't just get every sparkly that drew my attention, and looked more carefully through more sales and auctions sites ... then I could potentially have not just any cel, but that cel, the really special image from the really special moment. It got me thinking seriously about the activity -- I got my first cel book about the same time -- and learning more about the hobby from contacts on Animanga.

Then, in 2004, I struck up a friendship with the curator of Vapalla's Cels. At the time, I was still very much a CCS-only collector. (Though a Ryoko cel was the second one I purchased, on the principle that every collection needs at least one of these.) She had a much stronger collection than mine, and it was much more adventurous, including a wide diversity of series, from Vampire Hunter D to Cyberteam in Akihabara. I visited her home several times, and she not only was happy to flip through cel books with me, explaining the reasons she went after just that cel, and also sharing episodes from her fansubs (now on CD-Rs rather than VHS tape) that she thought I would like. Her collection of TnN cels was the thing that tipped me into collecting from this series, and a number of other passions eventually became mine. For a time we worked together as a team on YHJ, with our batches of mutual winnings going to one or the other of us. In splitting up these consignments and sending Vapalla's to her, I got to see some of the art she was going after, and that gave me ... well ... new ideas. Certainly I'd not have collected from A Tree of Palme without her convincing me that it was drop-dead lovely, and I give her credit for giving me the incentive to look beyond my initially very limited scope to start looking at a much wider range of collectable art.

And I owe her eternal gratitude for sharing her fansub files of Asatte no Houkou, which I loved at first viewing, though I thought the ending was really very sad. Later, I thought it odd that it ended with Episode 8, rather than going to twelve episodes, and I asked if they'd ever made any more of it. "Oh! Don't tell me I never sent you the rest of the series!" she responded. And the world was soon a happier place.
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Wendy »

Wow, such great stories.
A lot of the people who posted here I knew/know from "back then" so reading these stories is really interesting.

I guess my defining moment came around 2006, when my father got terminally ill and eventually passed away at a way too young age.
Before that I was a very active collector. It was the thrill of the hunt mostly.

But cel collecting really dominated my life back then and the prices I was paying for cels were seriously spiraling out of control.
The moment you think $2600 for an Inuyasha OP cel of Naraku isn't such a bad price to pay, is the moment you need to step back and really reflect on what you are doing.

My father's illness had a huge impact on me. It made me realize there were so many things so much more important in life.
I needed to change and in order to turn things drastically around I decided enough was enough and I sold (most of) my collection.

Thing is; although I've tried so hard to completely quit cel collecting, I never really succeeded in that.
At one point I thought I had completely left my collecting days behind me, being completely inactive from 2008 to 2014, only selling my remaining cels.
Until I suddenly caught myself checking eBay for DBZ cels :P

You can blame Vegeta for that :wink:
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Gonzai »

Hey Wendy - nice to see you around. Hope you are doing great!!

Mine is plain and simple - grandkids!!

I used to spend all of my time thinking about artwork, updating my gallery, searching for new things,
but the more grandkids I got, the less time I spent doing anything with artwork. I still collect from
time to time, however, I really find I have no time to hurt for anything new, much less update it to
my gallery if I get something.

I am trying to do some catch up on updating, however, I go strong for a couple days, then I get
smacked in the face with life again. :hurt:
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Wendy »

Hey Nida, good to see you too.
And yes, I have seen on Facebook. Life can sure deal out some pretty nasty kicks in the teeth :(

You know how they say 7 lean years, 7 good years?
Well I think some twat made a shipping error. I'm way overdue on getting those good ones :D
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Re: What experiences have effected your collecting?

Post by Sui Kune »

Right now it's two things: the new production of Sailor Saturn merchandise (which I am over the moon over, no pun intended), and my chronic illness taking a downswing for over a year now.

I'm still very much around, I just have trouble stringing my thoughts into extended-length posts. (I am on Twitter though under @suikune, feel free to follow me if you enjoy my rambling! I just swear a lot if that might be a problem. I also have a Tumblr!) Pieces have also been much slower to show up (which is a little bit of a relief to me, seriously the flood of new Sailormoon merchandise is nuts!), but I've still been able to add a couple gems. I'm also getting to a point in my collection where I'm very very happy with what I have, so I'm able to be quite a bit more picky in what I decide on pursuing. And now that Sailormoon Crystal has officially been confirmed for a third arc (and my absolute favorite arc!), I now know what my new White Whale will be.

I do honestly feel bad I'm not able to contribute more, but I'll do my best to be better at it. :)
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