Things a collector hates to see...

[sensei]

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f140798936

Up for auction: Nice pre-power-transfer cel of Yue and Touya from "The Scene" in CCS Ep. 65 ... but the scan shows (and the seller's description confirms) that the cel has been trimmed on all four sides, then directly attached to a color copy matching background with celotape (which of course has since burnt the paper under it). No word about the extent to which the cel is stuck to the copy bg. No douga.

27,000 yen might be a good price if the cel were untrimmed--and not stuck to the bg--and had a douga. But to me the melancholy thing is the way this cel has been mistreated. It should instead go to an adoption agency so it could be placed with an owner who will care for it.

[majinuub]

I still hate when sellers just place a random BG to any cel without some kind of layer or protection to separate them. After a while the said cel will get inevitably stuck to the BG over time and will be harder(and more expensive) to separate. The fact that it's been trimmed as well adds salt to the wound...

[lunacels]

I've bought several cels (some highly valuable) from Mandarake recently, and most were trimmed. I don't love them any less for it, but how is this a thing? Who does this?

Sticking to dougas is my pet peeve. How hard would it be to separate the cel (pre-sticking) and store in its own bag? Oh well...

[KinoLRB]

Ouch! And such a beautiful image too. What a shame.

I can deal with 'stuck to the douga' (though I agree with Lunacels, it is also a pet-peeve of mine)--but I can deal with it if the price is right and/or the cel is one that I really want.

Stapled cels, however...

[sensei]

Toei regularly trimmed cels and mated them to non-matching backgrounds when they were prepared for sale in their gift shop for people taking the studio tour. As the trimmed cels were often oversized, this made sense, and the background were sometimes cut down to the size of cels, I'd guess to fit in the cel bags. This is sad but not too depressing.

But the CCS example really is a major collectable moment. And the cels are standard sized, so there was no reason to trim this one. I'm guessing that it was an amateur framing job. One of my important Yukitos (from Ep. 67) was at one time taped directly to the background (this time an original matching bg). When I got it, the cel had been removed (using a keen blade to slit the celotape, and also, superficially, the background), but the tape was still in place. I fortunately was able to remove that without much damage to the paint, but it was permanently yellowed when it had been stuck on. As the background was trimmed, I'd guess this too was an amateur frame job that was disassembled before too much harm was done.

[Rekka Alexiel]

I had a look at the description on that page...and I don't believe the actual cel has been cut. The seller states that he's using a A4 sized scanner (relatively small to make decent scans of a cel) and therefore all four sides have been cut off in the *image*. I think the main thing you need to worry about with this one is that it may or may not be stuck to the color copy (I don't believe it states either way, simply that it's a matching color copy).

[sensei]

Thanks Rekka. I hauled out my own uncropped scan of my sequence-mate for reference, and I agree that it does not appear to be trimmed on the bottom or on the left. I'm still worried about the right side, which is one of the first things I saw when I looked at the seller's scan. In my cel, the image is strongly unbalanced to the left side of the sheet, and it still looks as if someone took a strip off the right of the YJ cel to make this image more balanced. But I could be wrong.

I can't tell about the top of the YJ cel, though I agree that my scan, which "cut off" the top of my cel (no, not really, this dimension doesn't fit on the glass, which is how Rekka interprets the seller's description) also shows the image of Yue's wings left incomplete at the top but also does not show the sequence numbers. So possibly the YJ cel is also untrimmed on the top. Might be worth asking the seller if anyone is interested. I'd especially like to know the sequence number of the YJ cel before dropping a bid. Cels from this cut don't show up often any more.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. Anyhow, I'm not in the game for the YJ cel, in case any Betarian wants to take a chance.

[Jadeduo]

It is worrisome, I don't think this has to do with this particular dealer, because I have purchased from Sakurasclub sp? before and all their stuff is generally in amazing condition and quite lovely. I am still thinking about going for it, because I am an episode hog and I would love to pick up another one from this scene, particularly one that does not look exactly like the one I have had for the last ten years. I'm not sure with all the questions up in the air if it is worth more than they are asking, as the one I have I dropped 32000 yen, 10 years ago, that being said it was in pristine condition separated from it's sketch and from the part where it looks like Yue is going in for kiss.

So I am not sure more than 27000 is ideal particularly without a sequence number... Like I said it's a conundrum!

JD

[GuyvarIII]

I’m mostly immune to Card Captor Sakura cels…
Well, there was that one cel of Kero…
But I lost, so I can pretend it never happened.

However, I, too, have been sucked in by the siren call of awesome looking trimmed cels.
I got one of those cropped Sailor Moon cels from Mandarake (and, that’s really something for me, because it’s not a cel of Beryl!).



There is the chance that you can find a similar shot, or a sequence mate. But, it’s not like I’m going to see this cel again and it’s suddenly going to “re-grow” its side.

There are worse things I've seen that can happen to cels.
It could have stuck to misaligned and/or non-matching cel layers that make the image look odd.
It could have been left in direct sunlight for years, stripping it of all its lines.
It could have massive paint chipping.
It could have been stuck to a creased and molding background that had been partially eaten by bugs and covered in weird stains.
It could have been suffering from vinegar syndrome and melting before your eyes.
… Of course, if it was, I probably wouldn’t have bought it.

As with any cel (or any rare, or one of a kind, item),that's how it is.

Staple holes, rust marks, chipping, tape burn, cel spotting, line fade, small tears, cracks, creases, yellowing of paper, sticking to things… melting…

It's just good to be informed, so you can bid, or not bid, accordingly.

[Jadeduo]

GuyvarIII That post is a hoot, and just because you lost does not mean you are immune to CCS! No one is immune, and if they say they are... they are lying!!!

^_^
JD

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

There are worse things I've seen that can happen to cels.
It could have stuck to misaligned and/or non-matching cel layers that make the image look odd.

One of mine is an amazing heartbreak in this way. It's the most gorgeous shot of Marou (from Curse of the Undead Yoma) that I've ever seen, a close up facial shot. The hair is on a separate layer from the face. As best I can tell, the cel layers got stuck slightly misaligned and were pulled apart, causing some damage to the paint of the hair, then were allowed to become REstuck together AGAIN (not in the same alignment as before) with a few of the chips of the damaged paint in between the layers.... REALLY??????????? (*facepalm*)

My only *known* trimmed cel is also from Curse of the Undead Yoma. A beautiful, vertical pan cel that was trimmed, very unevenly, on one of the ends to make it shorter. Thankfully there is no damage to the painted part so it's relatively ignorable, however, I still wish for the fleas of a thousand camels to infest the armpits of whoever took scissors to it.

[JWR]

One mis-step I had with CCS cels is one image I paid a nice amount that it turned out most of it was part of a copied background.
http://ryan.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=155128

[lunacels]

I've fallen victim to the copy-background-making-up-more-than-I-thought-of-the-image, too...it's still a nice image, but irksome!

GuyvarIII, love that Nehelenia! I think some of mine came from that same auction batch, and it's weird because the cel was so severely cropped on the right side, cutting off painted portions of the cel, whereas there was a lot of negative space left over on the left side. And then at least two came with matching backgrounds that were still so oversized that they never would have fit in a Toei bag, and dwarfed the cut cel (on both sides). So what was the point of cropping? As far as cutting, I think the worst offenders were the Saturn/Nehelenia, and the Usagi/Mamoru/Chibi Chibi from ep 198. But like you, probably not going to find the sequence mates so I was willing to put up with it. I don't think many of these caveats (other than severe line fading) have kept me from adding a cel to my collection, as I've just come to expect some damage with most cels of this age. But sometimes I wish they came with a history card detailing what's happened to them/where have they been for the last two decades!

[cutiebunny]

I purchased one of the cropped Mandarake cels for the same reason - I'd never seen a sequence mate in 10+ years of collecting and I knew I would never see one again, or at least, not for sale.

I'd like to suggest the theory that these all came from one owner. At least in the case of the cel I received, it fits inside a very typical Japanese A4 size frame. This particular frame can hold two items and folds on itself, making it a rather ideal way to store multiple cels. The frames can be stacked and they protect from light.

When it comes to original art items, I hate it when people black out the names or other details with permanent black marker, or any marker. I've havd a couple of items, mainly nengajo, where the name is blocked out. I applaud the people that just put a sticker or something over their address, though I should probably look into getting those removed due to their acidity. But yeah, nothing like receiving a nice shikishi and the name has been blacked out. I have never cared if an item is personalized and would prefer it just be left as it was designed.

[RePete]

I have bought from this seller before. Everything arrived in perfect condition. Cel had cel-bag of its own so it wouldn't stick to the background.