WTH happened to this cel?

Priss-chan · Post by **Priss-chan** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:21 am

http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k117342876

It'd be a nice Sylia cel except for, oh, the line fading and the fact there's a HUGE piece of paint missing from her jacket. How the heck does THAT kind of damage come about? It pains me to look at

Post by **sensei** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:52 pm

Actually, that looks like light reflecting off part of a very iffy digicam snapshot. Paint loss wouldn't "bleed off" on the edges like this. The trace lines do look badly faded though.

I once was sole bidder on a cel setup that looked like it had a bad ding on the background, with ugly creases, crinkles, and paint loss, right behind the character. I bet my booty that it was the same issue: just a lousy snapshot with light reflecting in this spot, and couldn't wait to see the piece in person. Of course, it ended up being sent my mistake to another collector and anyhow, a month later I did finally see it up close and personal. Yep, no damage or paint loss.

Priss-chan · Post by **Priss-chan** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:59 pm

It COULD be camera glare, but I can't get past the fact you can see the creases in her jacket plain as day in that spot

And if you think the line fade in this one is bad, you should see the Priss one that seller has up...and he wants 10,000 yen for it still. No thanks.

MidniteKitten · Post by **MidniteKitten** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:30 pm

I'm almost positive whatever it is, is on the cel bag. It looks like some kind'a sketch teared off and adhered to it, or a price sticker was taken off the bag...something like that. But I'm pretty sure its not paint loss :/

Sylia · Post by **Sylia** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:53 pm

I thought it was camera glare, too, sensei. Though you make a good point that it's odd you can see the lines, Prisschan. I guess you won't really know unless you buy it, will you lol?

I agree with you that the line damage to Priss looks slightly worse, but otherwise it's a nice cel of her. If you don't like the price the seller is asking for it though, don't bid (as you said ^^).

Nene · Post by **Nene** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:37 am

My opinion of the picture seems to be paint loss (or none in the first place) followed by a coating of white paint on the back. The white colouring doesn't look consistent with camera glare or paper sticking to me.

Also, there is a chance it could be some kind of studio error considering you can't see much past Sylia's shoulder in the cel in the anime. As someone suggested to me, there might have been a correction layer to cover it up. It's a kind of mystery paint blob.

Sylia · Post by **Sylia** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:06 am

Ah! I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the white paint thing, Nene! It would explain the weird white-painty-bleed-thing happening towards the very bottom of the cel when you look closely. I also checked last night after I posted to see how much of the area was really onscreen in the episode, and wasn't much, as you've pointed out.

I feel bad for the sellers sometimes, though. Innocently trying to go about selling their cels; never imagining people would be starting impassioned threads on forums about their auctions lol.

I wonder how one goes about trying to openly and honestly sell something with any kind of damage at all, without attracting a lot of negative attention and collectors' wrath these days?

Inevitably you'll get a piece you need to pass on that's not in perfect condition at some point. If it was me selling, and I'd advertised it truthfully, I think I'd be a little annoyed that people were taking upon themselves to create threads anyway that inadvertently seemed to be trashing my cel to everyone; potentially saboutaging the success of my auction sales. Maybe we should just live and let live in most of these cases

?

I'd just like to point out that I truthfully in no way know the seller or have any kind of relationship to them. But good luck anyway, random mystery seller, if you're out there and reading English! I wish you well with your auctions. (Also, good luck to anyone reading who hopes to bid on these!)

(...Of course with the last BGC cel auction that was drawn attention to like this, it didn't actually influence everyone into not bidding, so maybe there's no such thing as bad publicity... XD)