How much for one piece of art?

[kizu]

I was curious... I'd like to know how much was the highest you guys paid for 1 piece of art (for sketches, a cut, a set would be fine) - this includes payment plans btw.

This isn't to see who has the biggest wallet or to discuss the practicality or insanity of spending such amounts. There's no need to actually say exact numbers (a vote in the poll is fine)... Although it would be nice to hear some stories about how it came about, or how you came to a decision to actually pony up the money... How did you feel afterwards etc.? I won't judge you and I hope others won't either by sharing your story. I think it would be very insightful though so I encourage you to share your experience.

For me I spent over 2K once. I was in contact with a US dealer who had two cels that a Japanese dealer wanted for his 1 cel. So I bought the 2 cels and sent it to Japan to get one cel back. It was early on in my collecting and it was lean for a couple of months for me. I was a total nut job through the entire thing because there were two shippings involved and I was jut freaking out that something might happen to the cels... Wait actually there is the 3rd shipping of course of the cel from Japan to me... LOL. I was freaking out the entire few weeks this was happening. LOL. But yes I still don't ever regret it even though I know I might have over-traded by a few hundred.

[Starfighter]

Well the highest I ever paid for a cel was 1000.00. I was winning this perfect sm cel on jy and it got a little high. It ended up costing me over a grand but the cel was an important key cel and came with the original background.

Starfighter

[Eternal Squall]

My Highest Bids were never high enough, alas I languish in the land of 3 digits. Oh to climb the mountain.......

[ReiTheJelly]

My highest priced item falls somewhere in your $501-$1250 range. Due to a bad exchange rate and some inordinately high deputy fees, the cost of the item was increased by an additional 1/3 of the ending price of the auction!
It was also won with a deputy service I had never used before, which made me very nervous.

Do I regret my purchase? Absolutely not. It was a multi-layered key end set-up with original matching background. Does my wallet cry every time it thinks about that much money being spent on a single item? Yes. Do I kick it into a corner and tell it to stop moaning? You betcha!

[Captain Haddock]

I've never really gone beyond the $100-$500 range really, I'd love to but I don't generally have that much money to toss at my hobbies unfortunately.

When I have got near that limit, it does feel good. When I could waltz (in the electronic sense) up to the dealer and slam down the moolah and say:

"I want that one please."

Since I don't get to spend very often it means I normally have to do a few sales or something to make up the cost, so it's very satisfying when I can. I wouldn't say though I feel guilty or bad about it, maybe if I was doing myself serious financial damage, but I'm not reckless so I feel happy with what I've spent.

[JWR]

For me my highest piece of comic art ran over $2.5k
The piece was bought directly from the artist Mike Mignola and a comic-con and is currently framed and proudly displayed in my den.

Most for anime art is $1k reached twice.
In both cases the cels were purchased from friends so I was willing to pay a little more.

I'm have not really had much buyer's remorse for any of our purchases.

[Angelic-Lair]

The most we've paid for a single piece of animation art is $1,000. We've considered spending up to $2,000 on one or two different pieces, but never got the chance... someone else always ended up winning those auctions. ^__^

The funny thing is that we would feel worse if we overpaid for something than if we were to pay more than a certain amount for something. For instance: Even after a couple of years, we still feel one of our $1,000 pieces was worth every penny. Another item we bought at around the same time for $500 still feels overpriced.

We probably couldn't ever bring ourselves to pay more than $2,000 for a single piece of animation art, though. That always seems to be about where we drop out of the race. ^__^;

[graymouser]

Nope, no regrets.

As far as stories go. I don't have too many. One of the more expensive ones involved trying to coordinate shipping/payment between 3 different people in 3 different countries (U.S., England, and France). It was relatively easy for me but unfortunately a big pain for the collector in England since the collector in France was AWOL for a time. Eventually a relative of the French collector completed the deal. I doubt any of us are too eager for a repeat of that incident. Still, I am very happy with my cel.

Otherwise, most of my expensive transactions have gone very smoothly. Other than the case I mentioned above, nearly all my other problems/stories have been with relatively smaller transactions ($300 or less).

[teggacat]

Great topic quite interesting to hear other collectors' stories
guess I used to get freaked out around the $600 mark,
time to back off then, thats way beyond high enough for me
I used to spend alot more freely on my habit but, well things are
just too unstable these days so I tend to be a whole lot more careful
[and downright cheap now]
with my choices, just makes the hunt more fun and challenging!
I've also changed my collecting interests somewhat, choosing
more affordable series to collect now.

[Keropi]

I don't mind saying because I usually don't bid very high these days and don't sell things either. I suppose it would be more of a problem for the cheap items because someone would inevitably complain about how much profit you're trying to make.

The most I paid for a cel is my To Heart Serika witches hat cel. I won that from a Mandarake lottery sometime back. I just really liked the shot of her. There weren't many decent cels of her around back then so I put in for it and won. I think the base price was something like $680, but because my stupid credit card locked up because I was paying to a Japanese source, Mandarake added an extra $40 to $50 in fees. It's still one of my favorite cels however.

I've bid on other cels up to around $920, but never won any of those.

The most I paid for a sketch set (I think) was for my questionable Fate/stay night set from four years ago. Looking back on it now, it appears that an animation worker drew those sketches to make some extra money on the side. But at the time I was pretty excited to get that set since it was only the third "set" I had seen from the series and I had really wanted sketches from the show. I had previously bid $540 for one production sketch sheet so 62,000yen+fees/shipping for an entire "set" didn't seem like a big deal at the time.

I just chalk it up to a "live and learn" thing.

[sensei]

I've always operated with a rough-and-ready $150 limit for most auctions. I've gone over it at times, when I was after something really good that I felt was worth the extra price. But actually my record for a single item remains just under $300. (I have bid more than this, but never won any of these high-roller auctions. Not for want of trying I might add in case anyone gets into a bidding war with me and expects me to drop out at $300.)

I did pierce the $500 barrier once, but for a combination of three cels in a private sale from another collector, and given the circumstances it's hard to give each one an individual price. If I did, though, probably one of these three would have bettered the $300 auction win.

Overall, I guess I'm a beer-barrel collector rather than a vintage wine collector. But I do try to get the best cels or sketches I can within the financial limits that are healthy for me.

[cutiebunny]

Well, according to the poll results right now, I guess I fall into the upper echelon here. Sigh....

The most I spent was a hanken cel. It was worth it and the only hanken cel I'd need from that anime. I have no regrets over that purchase.

Normally, though, I don't spend anywhere near that level. It would have to be a spectacular item to get me to part with that much cash again.

[Strictly-Dragonball]

The most I've ever paid for a single cel is $900 exactly, and yes I would pay much higher than that if it was a OOAK dream cel, provided I was financially stable at the time.

I don't have many cels but my cheapest one was $130 and I have a few around and above $500. Never regretted a single purchase

Cels aren't what I've dropped the most money on though to add something to a collection, I have a Michael Jackson autograph on a Thriller era photo that cost me MUCH more than any cel I bought and I don't regret that either. I'm also paying off a vintage MJ auto from the 1970's! Very rare, very expensive but worth every penny

If I'm not going to absolutely love something I won't buy it, if your going to regret the purchase you really should think do you really want it before you buy I think.

[Cordelia]

An interesting thread. I've mixed feelings about my most expensive cel (in the 4-digit range). Yes, it's rare and gorgeous, and I love it. But I hope I never spend that much on a cel again.....I say 'hope' because insanity may strike me if I see another ultimate dream cel.

I try to be forward looking. If I blow a large chunk of cash this time, I will try to work harder and save more money the next time. Nice cels are expensive. But other people I know spend more much on other stuff such as cars or designer goods anyway. Everyone needs a hobby right? Plus, dream cels retain at least some of their value or appreciate in value over time.

[tenzink]

Ten years back I spent $2k on a cel, thats the most I ever did. The next highest was 1.2k, done at the same time. Then after that everything was much much much less. The last cel I ever bought I agonised over at a whopping... $150. And that was the last cel I bought for myself, about four or five years back (I believe it was Toshinden). After that I did buy one cel this year... for my boyfriend's birthday Less than $100 and the most unique gift idea I could think of.

These days I no longer collect, I just sit on my hoard and breathe fire at would-be pilferers.