Whooaaaahhhhh!! I don't think my neighborhood movie rental place has THAT many DVDs!! heehee!
I guess I should answer the original question before I went off-topic to oggle Krafy's magnificent hoard of DVDs... I'm like most people who have already answered in that I only own cels of series I've seen. But on the other hand, since I watch most of my anime on CN, I have missed a few episodes of every series, so I have bought a few of my favorites to ID cels and just to enjoy in general. I was actually just thinking of purchasing Big O to i.d. a couple of my cels. (Following my general practice of playing Tradeola, I'd love to swap a burn of Big O for something I have... but I'm pretty low on stuff to trade at the moment. Hmmm... Gundam Seed anyone? )
I've only bought four cels from anime that I hadn't seen
first - my Iczelion cel, my two unknown cels and my summer
festival cel. So I can't say I've bought any anime just to ID cels.
But I've bought anime for these other cel-related reasons:
1. Anime I bought to be able to see my cels more clearly:
Kakyuusei TV series R2 DVDs
Kakyuusei Elf version R2 DVDs
Maison Ikkoku R1 DVDs
To Heart
2. Anime I bought because I seen nice artwork from it for sale and I wanted to see if I liked the anime enough to collect the artwork from it:
Can Can Bunny vol. 4-6 tapes
Doukyuusei 2 LDs and tapes
Hidamari no Ki VCD
Kakyuusei OVA (1995) tapes
Natural (Teacher's Pet) R1 DVD
Magical Twilight ep. 2 tape
Pia Carrot 2 R1 DVDs
3. Anime I bought because I seen an interesting scene of artwork available for sale and I wanted to know what that scene was about and if I liked the anime enough to collect artwork from it:
Dragon Knight 4
Masquerade R1 DVD
Pia Carrot 2 DX tapes
4. Anime I bought because I wanted to be sure that I didn't want to collect cels from it:
I long ago broke the habit of buying cels from shows I haven't seen. However, several series I did this with way back when (Orphen and Gundam Wing) turned out really well for me when I did finally see them. Not to mention I saved a lot of money buying them before they had much of an overseas audience.
As for buying anime dvds, the only ones I own are some Miyazaki works because my fiance enjoys them too. Otherwise I pretty much download everything, but even with that, I don't have enough spare time to keep up with all the fansubbers around now. So I do burn quite a few dvds to watch when I have more time.
Namaste
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright
Hehehe.... For me the reason why I started collecting cels is Kenshin OVA Seisouhen and it is my theme of collecting cels I like other anime cels, like cabbits from tenchi and other cute cats.... But probablly, I mainly will collect Kenshin cels (OVAs and TV).... mainly Kenshin OVA seisouhen
Whooaaaahhhhh!! I don't think my neighborhood movie rental place has THAT many DVDs!! 
heehee!
I like other anime cels, like cabbits from tenchi and other cute cats.... But probablly, I mainly will collect Kenshin cels (OVAs and TV).... mainly Kenshin OVA seisouhen