Sailor Moon collectors...

[LunaArt]

Haha! That was exactly what I said to my husband as soon as the cel bidding was over . . . "That was rough!" Whew!

I was really going after the hanken cels and I was happy I ended up with the 3 I bid on. I skipped the Mercury one since it was already way up there and also the Jupiter since I saw that Jadeduo was going for that particular one. Btw, if you didn't know . . . those 5 similar hankens were used to make a school year desktop calendar - here is a link to pictures that someone uploaded to their website that a friend found for me several years ago: http://three-lights.net/gallery/sailor- ... p-calendar I also know they were used to make telephone cards - someone has examples of them up in a Rubberslug gallery somewhere.

I already won the calendar cover hanken several years ago, so I was excited to see those up for sale. I plan on framing them all and putting them up in my office - they'll be the first cels I have ever had the nerve to frame. I also snagged the Serenity holding the Sword of Sealing. I would have loved the Dimando w/ Black Lady sitting on his chair, but just couldn't go any higher. It's always been a wishlist cel for me. I also was watching the 2 vertical pan cels and Saturn cel but bowed out of them very early due to my earlier wins.

Congrats to everyone on their wins!!

[Princess Nadia]

Hi! I know I don't post too often, but those Sailor moon cels took my breath away! I was up at 4:30 am uk time to watch these even though I wasn't bidding. I'll confess the Jupiter was my fav but I held off as Sailor Moon isnt my main focus and I do think she'll be more appreciated with a die hard fan (normally I disagree with this attitude). I nervously waited to learn where I could visit her!!! I cant wait for all of your updates!!!!!!!!

So It seems I'll be able to drool over most of those hankens at RS? Yay!!!!! I knew Saturn and the Neptune/Uranus would be waaay out of my league! glad I'll be able to visit the later. Good job everyone!!! Update soon! xxx

Congrats!

[Jadeduo]

Okay I probably shouldn't be awake right now I am downright still like.... *wanna goes back to bed* But my dog has to go potty so he had to go out! Congratulations to all my fellow Sailor Moon Peeps @Lunacels, @Luna-Art, and anyone that was up with us to cheer us along! Also to anyone else who won a piece!

I think me and Luna-Art had it lucky as the hankens were up first after the break and NO ONE bid on them. REALLY interesting, cause the battle was fierce in some corners especially the Mercury! Then right after the hankens, things got interesting! Me and Cutie were chatting while it was going on actually we were aghast, we hadn't seen Sailor Moon Cels go that high in YEARS! Is this good news on the market? And if so why are all those amazing pieces up on eBay now going for like nothing? (Well in comparison)

We still have five months left in the year and my Cel budget is officially blown! I am going to have to build it up again for sure! ^_^;;

On the plus side this will be a time for getting the gallery all caught up, and focusing on the Beta events coming up, The Gallery Open House and Cel Contest! I hope everyone here will participate and that we will be able to get our new lovelies up in our galleries in time!

JD

[Angelic-Lair]

Congrats to everyone who was able to get something!!! It was truly an incredible BWA.

We are still debating going after something (non Sailor Moon related) but its going to be a challenge. The ending times on these auctions were weird. Not so bad for us, as we are east coast(ish), but different from any other BWA we remember. Anyone know why the ending times were different?

[cutiebunny]

My friend, MechaBoy, won the Mercury hanken, so once it arrives in his grubby paws, he'll be updating that on his RS site. He was pretty adamant about winning that hanken as Ami is his #1 waifu.

This means that all five Sailor Moon R hankens up for grabs went to US collectors.

I won't lie - I had a bag of popcorn next to me while the auctions were going on. The benefit of not bidding, I suppose. I was surprised to see that the card set I complained about sold for 80,000 yen. The Takeuchi Usagi sketch went for over 800,000 yen. Good to know that if ever want to sell my collection, I should consider outsourcing the task to Mandarake.

Congrats to everyone that won something!

[lunacels]

Man I am dragging today!

Congrats LunaArt!! I am so happy you snagged three!! I hope you will share a photo of the finished display, as I am sure it will be gorgeous. And it's great that Cutiebunny's friend got the Ami/Mercury! Wow, that's great representation. Way to go guys! I thought the Usagi hanken was so cute with the little bunny on her briefcase, but was afraid to bid because no way was I going to potentially miss out on the later wishlist cel (good thing I held out!). I was watching them all intently though. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when Jupiter didn't climb any further (I was holding out hope for Jadeduo), but then man, we got to the production cels and it was off to the races! I knew they would go high--just not quite *that* high. I placed some bids for the Moon/Chibimoon but I was out well before the live auction even started. The Uranus/Neptune ended at easily more than twice where I thought (hoped?) it would go, and well over what I thought I would ever pay for a cel; but I was so committed to getting the cel from my favorite arc that I was willing to go all in. (Obviously!) Hopefully we won't see more consistent 2002-era cel prices coming around again. I was surprised at some of the finishing bids on the others, too!

Have to say, I'm so thrilled you all picked these up...and grateful to be able to celebrate with you! And thanks LunaArt for sharing where those hankens came from...I was wondering about that. Am always impressed by the wealth of knowledge on here!

Congratulations to everyone who got something, or will bid on later auctions! Now, I agree with Jadeduo...time to turn my attention to finishing gallery updates before the Open House.

[Sui Kune]

I tried bidding on the Keiko Takeda autograph (the first Myu Saturn!!), but I was continually locked out with error messages. Not even saying "you need to be registered for the BWA" (I remembered that and looked up whether it's required every individual BWA, and I got conflicting answers?), but "you are outbid" without any bid going through at all. I'm familiar with Mandarake and BWA, I've just never done this newfangled Live thing before and my own stupidity caused me to miss out on something I really wanted. I'm actually more frustrated at not understanding what went wrong than losing the item itself, since there's still always a chance I would've lost anyway.

But congrats to everyone that won something! I'm not at all surprised that most of the RP toys didn't sell (those starting prices my god), but really surprised at what got bidwars! There were some serious flats collectors attending.

[Angelic-Lair]

You have to watch with the new bidding practices on Mandarake. You can only bid a certain amount at a time on certain auctions. The allowable amount changes as the price increases. Its quite difficult to follow, actually, but you likely just bid too high for the price bracket you were in at the time.

[Sui Kune]

How odd, I'll have to really look over the guidelines again. (I know this same problem happened to me in a normal non-BWA auction, but I can't remember what I did to fix it.) It's also just as likely I simply didn't register for this BWA, but at least I learned how Live auctions work. XD I still personally prefer the normal auction type just so I have a more concrete time of end so I can go back to bed, but it was interesting to watch all the SM goods go by. I'm really excited to see the gallery updates of everyone who won, whenever they choose to update.

[Angelic-Lair]

Just saw an auction end for 2.3 million yen. Scary!!!

[lunacels]

Angelic-Lair, that makes me feel so much better! Though still...wow!! These prices are wild!

Sui Kune, I am sorry! I had trouble placing bids a few times...sometimes it wouldn't register, and I would change the base factor (from like 3k to 2k) and it would go through. I don't know, maybe it was my internet connection. At any rate, I am bummed--I was really hoping you got that Saturn!! Your other cel from that scene is nice, too.

[Jarmel]

Yea this BWA was wild when it came down to the final prices. Shikishi clearing 50k US...

I'm curious does Mandarake try to verify whether their goods are legit or not? Someone mentioned they do try to some extent.

[cutiebunny]

^ The US$40K (adjusted for exchange rate) item wasn't a shikishi, but rather an original page of manga artwork. It was supposedly drawn by Osamu Tezuka, and anything even remotely affiliated with Tezuka always goes for stupid high prices. Other than the tape burns, it was in good shape for its age. Not to mention that this particular sheet featured Princess Sapphire, and she's often referred to as the mother of the 'shoujo' anime genre. If your collection is focused on items of historical significance, this would be a piece to get.

The prices were expected for the higher priced original artwork, with the Rumiko Takahashi colored sketch at $16K, the Takeuchi Usagi sketch at $6.5K and the Ranma Takahashi sketch hovering in the high $4K range. The eroge shikishi, particularly the Koihime Musou sketches, also did quite well. I did think it was interesting that no one purchased the Namori sketch, despite her Yuruyuri anime having quite the following.

I don't think Mandarake verifies everything that it sells simply due to the volume that it sells. In most cases, it's not necessary to verify as most counterfeiters focus on only a handful of very famous artists. I also don't think it would be possible to verify the majority of the original artwork for sale. Part of this is because the person selling it may not be the original owner and the other part because the records associated with this item may have been lost. For example, unless someone actively catalogs the ads featured in weekly/monthly magazines that show smaller versions of the original sketches being offered, unless the accompanying congratulatory letter (which sometimes isn't included in the first place) is included, it's the seller's word against that of the expert. This is further complicated by the fact that, in some cases, some contests offer more than 1 sketch from the same artist, but only one of the sketches is shown. How then do you determine authenticity? In the case of shoujo/josei/yaoi artwork, those artists typically put a lot more detail into their sketches, meaning that someone very familiar with their style can easily pick out the counterfeit. That's a lot more difficult with artists like Hayao Miyazaki, whose Totoro sketches are comprised of just a few squiggly lines. Some artists, like Akemi Takada, will personally notify and/or post if they see a counterfeit being sold on a high profile auction, but many either don't recall or care enough to keep track of what artwork attributed to their name is being sold.

....

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your auction, Sui Kune. If you're having problems bidding again in the future, please let me know and I'll bid for you. Hopefully, with two of us on the case, one of us will end up snagging it

[Jarmel]

^ The US$40K (adjusted for exchange rate) item wasn't a shikishi, but rather an original page of manga artwork. It was supposedly drawn by Osamu Tezuka, and anything even remotely affiliated with Tezuka always goes for stupid high prices. Other than the tape burns, it was in good shape for its age. Not to mention that this particular sheet featured Princess Sapphire, and she's often referred to as the mother of the 'shoujo' anime genre. If your collection is focused on items of historical significance, this would be a piece to get.

I was referring to the Gohan shikishi. 6.5 million yen.
http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auction/it ... dex=311573

Thanks for the additional comments. I guess you have to take a leap of faith with any of this.

[KinoLRB]

Holy cow! 52,000+ in US dollars for the Gohan shikishi.

I wish I could have bid on the only Evangelion cel, but, sadly, 3.5K is way out of my price range.

Congratulations on your win, Jadeduo & Lunacels.