How are your acquisitions this year?

[cutiebunny]

I notice on your site that only 37.2% of your collection is on display? O.O

That's because I counted each background as a single item. Last year, the percentage of my collection online was around 50%, but since I bought a lot of backgrounds this year, it had a significant impact on the percentage of my collection that is viewable. I plan on updating with the backgrounds in 2012, during the seasons in which they occur. So, something like a cherry blossom background will appear in April, whereas a wintery Christmas scene will appear in December 2012.

[Keropi]

Nice topic!

I think I've only had twelve purchases this year and none of them since May 31st.

1. Natsuiro no Sunadokei ----- these were the first sketches I seen I seen from this show in my many years of searching for them. I liked the game so I had to bid on these. I wish there were more characters than just Ai though. Some Kaho sketches would have been nice.

2. Da Capo ----- I finally got some cat girl Yoriko sketches which I had always wanted. I seen a number of them pass by through the years and I didn't bid on them. I need to play her story route from the game someday. I got lazy after completing a few of the character stories and didn't finish all of them.

Some really nice Tokimeki Memorial cels popped up early this year so I managed to snag a few:

3. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Yoshio and his sister Yumi wrestling.
4. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Shiori in music class.
5. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Shiori shadow and the phone.
6. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Yoshio at the Christmas party.
7. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Shiori and an unsuccessful confessor
8. Tokimeki Memorial cel of Miharu's profile at night.

9. Elf ban Kakyuusei OVA of Miko and the Teru Teru Bozu background cel from one of the important scenes from the series. The listing price kept going down so I finally bid on it because it was too low to resist.

10. Doukyuusei 2 cel of Yui holding onto Makoto from behind when he was carrying her from the end of the costume party episode. That was another cel that was too good to resist as it was also being reduced in price.

11.Higurashi sketch of Rena looking up with a spooky look on her face as the rain was coming down and she was holding the bento. Sorry to the other person who bid on it, but I thought it was a pretty cool sketch.

12. Code Geass ----- a few sketches from it. One of them is of Kallen sitting at her desk supposedly from the third episode of the first series. The other Code Geass sketches I acquired came from that "funky seller" (wasted my money there because they weren't nice enough to collect on their own) so I wanted some real production sketches this time. Well...even if these aren't production sketches l don't really mind because they cost so little anyway.

[Quacker]

I plan on updating with the backgrounds in 2012, during the seasons in which they occur. So, something like a cherry blossom background will appear in April, whereas a wintery Christmas scene will appear in December 2012.

That sounds like a pretty cool & interesting idea CB; I would definitely drop by to check out the 'seasonal' changes & styles.
I also like your idea of the 'bulk' packaging/purchasing of Twin Angel's items - anything to reduce fees........*urggh* just thinking about deputy fees gets my FEE-rage meter rising.....

My cel collecting is one of the few things in which I do not keep detailed records of, but having a guess, I would say my acquisitions this year are a little less than at the same time last year.

Putting an actual figure to that, hmmmm maybe around the mid-twenties, twenty-five perhaps; with the vast majority originating from YHJ, followed by a few purchases from Private Collectors/Dealers and one from a Mandarake auction (my first win - yeh!!).
The actual Total price paid thus far, is more than half of last year's total - and no that is not including Fees (*argh*) or adverse Exchange rate affects. I am hoping this translates across to 'quality over quantity'. Barring a few notable exceptions, namely 'Last Exile' & 'Rahxephon', I have been fortunate to add to each of my gallery-sections while also creating one or two additional ones.

To choose an absolute favourite out of this year's batch would be a pretty difficult task as each purchase is individual and carries its own unique characteristics and reasons as to why I purchased it in the first place.

I am rather looking forward to 2012 as this year, like last year, Cel-collecting has not been at the top of my agenda. Other projects have diverted money/capital away from what otherwise would have been utilised for Cel-purchases; have had to let a few Cels pass-by that normally I would have chased after - but over the next six months, these projects should start to ease & even generate more cash to use for Cel-collecting.

[graymouser]

Until about a month ago it was incredibly slow. I had only bought 16 items until about mid-October. Then all of a sudden I found a bunch of stuff to buy. I have bought 10 items since then. So my total is now 26.


*EDIT* I should point out that I am not counting things like posters and such; just production artwork.

[D123]

I bought all of them at Mandarake. I did register at SMJ last week, but I found the winning auction prices much higher than those at Mandarake so far. (Seriously, they ask 3,000 yen for 3 rough sketches? I bought a few sets of 25 sketches, each for less than that price on Mandarake.)

I know when I’ve seen sketches for sale it’s usually a lot of three different sets and they put up a scan from each set, are you sure you’re not mistaking it with that (but I’ve also seen sellers sell sketches the way you mentioned too )

In regards to deputy fees and in addition to combining auctions from the same seller, you could always contact a collector buddy, see if they're planning on bidding on any of the seller's items and seeing if they wouldn't mind bidding on an item for you. That way, you can cut back on the fees by dividing them amongst others. I've always thought it would be nice to have a "Who's bidding on twin_angels_xx's items?" topic on the board so that collectors could network, but, I've also been around long enough to know that these topics are great ways to draw out last minute snipers...

Though, maybe it could be done. Someone would post a "I'm bidding on TA's items this week" and others could PM about combining fees. It would require a lot of trust, but, it could be done...

You guys are still doing that? Often I see twin_angels_xx's sketches but I’m usually only interested in one set from the lot of three sketch sets he sells. A lot of the time besides price , it doesn’t see worth bidding if I have to go through the hassle of reselling the sets I don’t want

I plan on updating with the backgrounds in 2012, during the seasons in which they occur. So, something like a cherry blossom background will appear in April, whereas a wintery Christmas scene will appear in December 2012.

That’s such a great idea

[KuroiTsubasa4]

I just started collecting this year so I guess I've accumulated about 50 pieces :3 I wish I was around earlier to see this cel heyday others have mentioned in other threads. Even though cel numbers may be limited now, I'm still really pleased with what I've been able to find. I mostly collect favorite moments from series, not necessarily the nicest, most displayable shots I don't think I fall into the quantity over quality category...though price is occasionally an extra push to get something cheap if I already have something on order from the seller. Unless I can identify the cel before bidding (or at least a close approx) and can justify why the cel means something to me, I won't bid. That's worked pretty well so far, though I've still ended up with a ton ^_^;

[Yupa]

Hang around, and you'll get a fairer idea of what prices are. In general, I've found the opposite -- Mandarake prices can be quite inflated vs. a good YHJ auction. But there are some notorious items that appear over and over at starting prices as much as 10x what I'd consider a good price. They will go for a week with no bids, then be relisted, or disappear and come back at the same price. Sometimes the seller will get the message and reduce the price until a bid is made. (We call that a "Dutch auction" in the US because it goes the opposite way from normal, high to low.) But some sellers are beyond common sense.

It is possible that the 3 rough sketches are by a well-known animator, too. Roughs tend to be by senior animators, the neater gengas and dougas by their subordinates. (Not always the case, though.)

Thanks for the info. I hope they'll go down, because I can't really spend that much money at the moment. And no, the sketches in my example were from an unknown animator and were from minor characters that I doubt anyone will buy (nobody buys roughs from that series besides me anyway).

A lot of collectors go through this period in their collecting 'career', where they look at the prices and opt to go for the "more for your money" route, despite maybe liking the more expensive item more. I know that when I first started using YJ regularly that I picked up two cheapy and under on YJ under the same line of thinking. I also sold them a couple of years after purchasing them. This is one reason why you'll see collectors sell a lot of their older items - they bought them more because of their price.

Assigning a value to artwork is difficult, and it ultimately depends on how much you, the buyer, value it.

You're right, as a beginner I find it hard to assign a value to artwork and that's why I generally look at the number of sheets and calculate my bidding price from that. I do regret not bidding high on items with less sheets but very nice artwork in the last few months, also I won some things that I wouldn't bid that high on if something similar came around again. I see that in this hobby experience is a good thing to have.

EDIT: Part of my post removed, see Keropi's post below.

I know when I’ve seen sketches for sale it’s usually a lot of three different sets and they put up a scan from each set, are you sure you’re not mistaking it with that (but I’ve also seen sellers sell sketches the way you mentioned too )

I do pay attention to the auction description and I know that ３枚 means 3 sheets. In my opinion sketches are not like cels; you can't sell them individually or they'll lose much of their value. I think that the best about sketch sets is that you can see the production process that went into making the final douga sequence, that's what interest me the most.

Sorry for going off-topic again here.

[Keropi]

It might be best not to post too much about Twin Angels openly since that Beta post from two years ago implied that he doesn't want the extra attention.

[darksuzaku]

For me it has been very few items this year so far. 10 cels only (9 KOR cels and 1 Crest of the Stars cel). All of them from YHJ. Numbers might raise a little before the end of the year but not that much.

I was tempted by a somehow decent pan cel from KOR on the last Mandarake BWA. The item on the catalog looked more or less well, but when the auctions were up i noticed that the cel was quite damaged (bent) and that detracted a lot of the value for me, so i decided to let it go, i didn't even bid and still the cel got a high final price, too high in my opinion.

The current dollar/Yen/Euro exchange rate doesn't help at all, but the main reason for my low amount of cel purchases is maybe the lack of cels for sale, or more precisely, lack of quality cels for sale, or maybe that i'm becoming more and more picky with the cels i purchase. Years ago i set for myself a few goals and i keep getting closer to achieving those goals. You can never say that your collection is "complete" but if i was asked about what i believe about the rate of completion of my own collection, i would say it's around 85-90% complete, at least for KOR. And needless to say that when you get to those high percentatges going even higher becomes more and more difficult.

[graymouser]

The current dollar/Yen/Euro exchange rate doesn't help at all, but the main reason for my low amount of cel purchases is maybe the lack of cels for sale, or more precisely, lack of quality cels for sale, or maybe that i'm becoming more and more picky with the cels i purchase. Years ago i set for myself a few goals and i keep getting closer to achieving those goals. You can never say that your collection is "complete" but if i was asked about what i believe about the rate of completion of my own collection, i would say it's around 85-90% complete, at least for KOR. And needless to say that when you get to those high percentatges going even higher becomes more and more difficult.

I would agree with this completely. It's a bit of a toss up whether I have gotten too picky, or there are not as many quality cels in the shows I collect from. I am also fairly goal oriented when it comes to my collection. Once I have the characters/scenes I want, I am going to be reluctant to spend much more time and money on that particular show. Right now I consider about 40% of my gallery closed (only buying on a rare impulse). For another 45% I am only looking for 1-2 characters (nearly all of them are side characters) to finish up.

[ladydouji]

I think I've been having a good year for cels. I started with a rather killer bargain in January when some-one getting rid of their Gundam X collection(or at least a big chunk of it) Ended up getting 21 cels, for 63$. I think that's what rekindled my interest in cel collecting. I later picked up a cel of Wufei from GW off ebay. Currently I have a cel of Trowa at the Rinkya warehouse.

[toonybabe]

I made a HUGE cel purchase a few months ago - the biggest ever in the history of my collection. I will update with it pretty soon along with some smaller acquisitions. I've been really busy this year. Between graduating college, job searching, freelancing and starting a new job I haven't found much time to work on my gallery. Its good to know that a lot of collectors are still out there going strong despite the economy and drop in the cel market.

[Gonzai]

64 Peacemaker Kurogane sets - Cel dealer

18 Hikaru No Go sets - Cel dealer & private sale

13 Vampire Knight sets (So far >_<) - Cel dealer

10 Hakuouki sets (So far >_<) - Average - Cel dealer

5 Yamoto Nadeshiko sets (So far >_<) - Private sale

I also got some random hankens from a series that I love but was not too popular. Lucky for me, I got the entire auction on Mandarake for around $75.00 ^_^

I hope to pick up a few more Yamato Nadeshiko, Vampire Knight and Hakuouki before the year is over,
but other than that, not really looking at anything else. ^_^

Looks to be 110 sets so far. The Peacemaker were all scenes that I requested, (not to mention the rareness. O_O) thus the reason for the higher price on those.
The Hikaru No Go I am just willing to pay outrageous prices for, since it is so hard to get them, andits my number 1 series I collect. The other things were
cheaper, though, I expect the Yamato Nadeshiko that I am looking at won't be as cheap as the VK and Hakuouki that I am hoping I will get this year.

All in all I would say it has been a pretty good year for artwork (considering I was planning on slowing down this year >_<).

I don't expect that I will do even half that many next year, and what I do get will be considerably cheaper - that is unless someone offers me another nice lot of Hikaru No Go again. ^_^

[animeobsessed]

I thought I had a slow year until I started checking. Though ebay, YJ, Mandarake, dealer or anime sites, and private sellers I acquired...

4 Bleach sketch sets and 3 repro cels
3 Gravitation repro cels
9 Hakuouki genga sets and 1 rilezu
2 Inuyasha cels - one Youkai
2 Naruto sketches and 6 repro cels - none of Sasuke
8 Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi genga sets
2 Tegami Bachi genga sets
13 Vampire Knight sketch sets - various characters
5 Kenshin cels - including much sought after Aoshi, Sourijo, movie Kenshin and my most treasured Kenshin cel for this year
Total 58 sketch sets/cels

I have a few others in buying or transit status so I didn't name those yet. This is still a much longer list than I remembered.

Aside from the Kenshin cel, most of these were fairly inexpensive compared to previous years, so I ended up spending less.

Since I was able to win the Tsuiokuhen Kenshin, finally snag a Sourijo cel, along with an awesome Youkai Inuyasha cel for way less than I expected I'm very happy with my acquisitions this year. Though I have to say there were several items I would have loved to have bought/won if only the yen rate/economy was better.

As far as next year, it depends on what pops up!

[jenn-b]

I was doing so well. Now....not so much!

At this point, I will try not to quantify. It's just to painful trying to figure it all out!! Actually, I've had an amazing year...and no complaints so far!