How much for one piece of art?

[Ryouko]

I actually only own 5 cels that I paid more than $500 for, and the highest I've gone is $800 (which was today's purchase, haha... oh Midori, how much you love to raid my wallet). Then again, I only buy 2 or 3 cels a year now, because FY has gotten so expensive. ^^; Most of my collection was aquired back when they were usually less than $100 a pop.

But do I regret the higher prices I've paid lately? Absolutely not. I love every piece of my collection, especially considering how much I've had to trim it down over the years. What I have left now are my absolute favorites. :)

[Killua]

Over 9000!!!!

[MyBaby]

The most I have paid for a cel is $300. It is my favorite cel in my collection. It is Tasuki from Fushigi Yuugi.

[toonybabe]

Most of my cels range between $150 and $300, but the most I've ever paid for one piece of art was a little over $900. My next highest is $650 and then $400 for a set of comic book art. Two years ago I won two sketch sequences from Unico on Mandarake that each went over $500. With fees and the exchange rate my wallet was hurting and I was really, really regretting getting into a bidding war with the other collector(s). But now I don't regret paying the money at all. It's happened with some other pieces - sometimes I regret paying the money at the time but a few months to a year out when I look at those pieces in my gallery I am glad I jumped at the opportunity.

When I first started to collect I had more money to throw at auctions. Now I hate spending more than $100 on a cel. I am saving my money and energy for the truly amazing pieces. Although, lately, I've been finding some great deals - sometimes only paying $20 for a cel or a sketch!

I'm finishing up putting together a record of my collection. Its going to be interesting to see in which years and on what series I've spend most of my money on.

[Quacker]

The most I have paid for a single animation cel..........would be the Nausicaa & Teto piece I picked up earlier this year. At the end of the auction, it had breached the 180k yen mark & there were still at least two serious bidders continuing to throw last-minute bids in an effort to win.
With the JPY/USD followed by a USD/AUD currency conversion + usual third party fees I paid over AUD2.5k.
Any regrets? None whatsoever, it is an absolutely beautiful piece + it also came with a certificate of authentication as unfortunately there seems to be a few knock-off Nausciaa cels doing the rounds. Besides, I had just signed off on a Property deal and I considered this a 'celebration' present rather than blowing it on booze/wine, women & song......I think the cel was the cheaper option!!
I consider myself fortunate, in that if I see a cel that I like - really, really, really like - then I do have the capacity to chase after it, or at least put up a fair fight for it.

[Noriko010884]

The highest I paid for an individual piece is a four figure sum for a Mononoke-Hime cel from Mandarake. High price but absolutely worth it. ^_^

[kizu]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. It was good to read through them and see how we all relate to each other. As for the poll, it pretty much followed my expections with the exception of the 1250-2000 range as I was expecting a bell curve with a skew to the left. Anyway it was good to see how far we've gone for those artwork.

[Sky Rat]

The most I’ve spent on a cel is $300.

The most I’ve spent on non-animation artwork is $400.

My comfort zone for spending is just a smidge higher for non-animation art than cels primarily just because I can leave things like paintings out on display and look them every day without worrying about them becoming damaged, whereas my cels I keep stored properly and I don’t spend as great a volume of time looking at them.

I don’t predict I’ll be surpassing those numbers any time soon unless I find myself with a different job. I’m actually surprised I’ve managed to go that high.

I definitely don’t regret those purchases though, I actually got a very good deal on the cel, it was just very hard to justify to myself spending what to me is a huge amount of money. But the former owner has had a few offer periods/sales over the time I’ve been collecting and I actually became fixated on wanting to buy that particular one a whole year before I finally decided to make an offer on it. I was really excited when my offer was accepted and it’s become one of my favorite pieces in my collection.

[sensei]

My wife used to complain about the money I spent on animation art until our insurance company made a clerical slip and for a while was threatening not to pay our hospital bills for the past year. The tab for two knee replacements put a lot of things into context: $125,000 apiece.

Of course they don't suffer from line fading and come with a lifetime guarantee...

(Yes, yes, the insurance company finally apologized and paid up, but still...)

[Shampoo]

With the latest exchange rates being as shitty
as they are the new contender (for cels/shikishi) is at 1.2-1.5k
and for genga at 2.2k
>_<;;;

Its a big chunk of change for anime related art (IMO)
but they were totally worth the blood, sweat, tears.
If i quit this hobby tomorrow, there would be 0 regrets.

[eyes0nme19]

I've spent from as little as $5 to as much as $200 for a cel/sketch. I actually did once saw a gorgeous cel on mandarake I was willing to spend $300 but I knew it would eventually go up to $500 or more and I just could not afford it... There were also some wishlist sketches being sold here on beta, I was lucky to get the chance to pay $350 for them, but felt so uncomfortable spending so much and was hesitant to fork up the money. In the next day or two another person apparently offered a lot more and it was sold...I felt shocked and disappointed. But now that I look back I'm sort of relieved I didn't spend that amount of money. I wish I was a billionaire so I wouldn't have to decide whether I should purchase something or not, but I'm not and so I'm just happy and grateful with what I can have and get

[jcaliff]

I've only ever once spent more than $300. I probably only have less than 10 that I've paid more than $150 for. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to cels. I love finding a 100 yen bargain.

[theultimatebrucelee]

I think for me its like 685$ or something like that..my main collection however is still resin kits. last year I spent a bit over 2k on this amazing piece, took me some months to pay off as my proxy decided to lend me money lol and later on I decided to sell it back on YJA for around the same price.

[duotrouble]

I laughed at the choices in the poll. My most expensive cel would have fit in one catagory but I talked the dealer down so it fit in a lower catagory. I don't talk numbers with people but I will say it was four digits. It's not in my top 10 faves but it will never leave me. I just love it.