Hmmmm

[Kaije]

I'll admit, I was surprised this place was still around. But it's kinda quiet.

[sensei]

YAAAAH Flame War with Kaije!!!!





Yeah, there's not the constant interplay that there once was, for better or for worse, but there are some of us who are still very committed to collecting and conserving anime art. My impression is that it's shifted from the old "OMG look what's up on auction that is so mine don't anybody else bid on it or face the consequences" and gone more toward sales and discussion of fine points on how to house cels and sketches in a healthy way for the long term. I still find enough popping up to keep checking the auctions, and it's interesting to see how prices trend. CCS, which was hot but affordable when I started, went through a bust period when many items that would have been unattainable in the early Aughties became quite reasonable around 2010. Now it seems to have returned to its "hot" status, with prices climbing well into the 10Ks. And it's also interesting to see what is becoming pricy and competitive in early CGI sketch art: the 2003 yuuri series Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tibibito ("Yamibou" for short) really has attracted an avid crowd of bidders of late.

Anyhow, if you'd like to stir up something, I'd be happy to participate, and I'm sure others will too.

[jiangdc]

YAAAAH Flame War with Kaije!!!!





Yeah, there's not the constant interplay that there once was, for better or for worse, but there are some of us who are still very committed to collecting and conserving anime art. My impression is that it's shifted from the old "OMG look what's up on auction that is so mine don't anybody else bid on it or face the consequences" and gone more toward sales and discussion of fine points on how to house cels and sketches in a healthy way for the long term. I still find enough popping up to keep checking the auctions, and it's interesting to see how prices trend. CCS, which was hot but affordable when I started, went through a bust period when many items that would have been unattainable in the early Aughties became quite reasonable around 2010. Now it seems to have returned to its "hot" status, with prices climbing well into the 10Ks. And it's also interesting to see what is becoming pricy and competitive in early CGI sketch art: the 2003 yuuri series Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tibibito ("Yamibou" for short) really has attracted an avid crowd of bidders of late.

Anyhow, if you'd like to stir up something, I'd be happy to participate, and I'm sure others will too.

I feel that not only Yamibou went crazy, SIMOUN also went crazy. However, I don't see much competition in bidding sketches from Toka Gettan and Moonlight Lady, which are more closely related to Yamibou. I would guess this phenomenon may have something to do the increasing popularity of animator Asako Nishida in recent years.

[Kaije]

I'm not sure what we can have a flame war about...

How about I just disagree with you? Yeah, take that disagreement!


10k huh? Sounds like bidding wars between the high-end Japanese collectors.

[KT]

I'll admit, I was surprised this place was still around. But it's kinda quiet.

I agree! I use to be around here everyday in the early 2000s. I think this is the first time I logged on in like 5 years lol

[sensei]

Agreed: I think the slowing of the market accounts for a lot of that. There was a time when there was a lot of "OMG look what I just got!" and the inevitable "You sniped me for that: I'll never forgive you!" Some of us are still collecting, but as the need to take care of cels properly hits home, I think some of the previously enthusiastic collectors are unloading and many of us are shifting away from cel-based art to paper sketches, which are much more stable over time (though they too need care in housing).

So I think the tone has shifted from "Hooray! I just uploaded 22 new DBZ cels!" to "What do I do when it looks like there's water between two layers of cels?" It's still a good place to hang out, though to tell the truth we should have more events to pull people back in.

[Frysende]

I'd be really happy to see more events around this place, seeing as I'm relatively new to this hobby. I'm still very much in the honeymoon period where I'd be happy to show off what I can add to my collection on my meager student/soon-to-be graduated budget. The gravity of taking care of cels has been part of this hobby since I joined, so I never see my collection exceeding a handful of binders, but I'm always on the lookout for wishlist cels and more manageable genga/layouts.

Anyway, long story short, seeing activity on the forums brings a smile to my face because this community has been incredibly helpful for me over my year of collecting.

[KT]

Even though I can see this hobby has matured a lot, I still low key miss those days when you would log on to Beta and it was so lively and constant conversation. It takes me back to my anime cel collecting days. I am not in the hobby anymore as my interests have shifted, but I did manage to get most of what I wanted to make my collection "complete" so to speak.

[Frysende]

Are there any ideas people can think of that they might want to see on a-b to get the blood flowing some more? I know we have the cel and genga contests, and I recognize that the hobby has shifted from "buy buy buy" to "preserve, hope, and wait", but I wonder if people would be interested in some kind of game or contest to bring the community together?