Misadventures in Cel Collecting - Share Your Horror Stories

[star-phoenix]

I had a couple horror stories in my 17 years of collectinig.

A. Back in 2003, I ended up buying a reproduction cel when it was stated as original production cel, and did not know enough about the series to know they made repros from the studios.
I had to force a return on that one back to the seller (thank goodness for credit card protection).

B. Rookie Vintage Collector mistake - In 2006 when I started collecting Disney vintage art, I WWWWAAAAAYYYY overpayed for a Snow White production cel of the Dwarfs. Shortly after, I found multiple other sequence mates that were literally 60-65% of the price I paid for mine. I learned not to jump and do my research on this.

C. This was a fairly recent horror-ish story that happened this year. I bought an original Disney Alice and Wonderland concept off of eBay that was supposed to be made by the renowned Disney artist and illustrator. I basically paid a premium for this piece because of the name attached to it. Well, I got the piece in, and took a much closer look at it and start recognizing some subtle concerns. I immediately went through all my books and consulted 2-3 other experts in Alice in Wonderland and that specific artist, who confirmed that the artist never made that piece although the piece itself was 100% real concept. But, with the "name", I paid a massive premium for it, where it would have been significantly cheaper if it was sold as a concept of an unknown artist. Fortunately, this is where the experience of being defrauded in the past helped. I bought this under eBay buyer protection along with Paypal buyer protection + credit card fraud protection. After disputing the COA as being false and unearthing the provenance of the piece from 8 years ago to the original auction house to confirm that they said that there is no record of it being made by that particular artist, I had the file a dispute to force a return. I was not out with any money, and eBay even covered my shipping. Thank GOODNESS for that. But, when you know the field after a while, always use your judgement. Even galleries with their COA can still be false (as in this case), and it would save you a lot of heart ache and tears.

But, when in doubt, always use buyer protection and do not hesitate to contact the cel community. There are so many people here that are SUPER helpful and knowledgeable in, not only Anime, but various other animations, and artwork.

[KinoLRB]

Fortunately, I haven't had much misfortune along my collecting journey, but I made the very stupid mistake of storing my first cel in a cheap frame and leaving it in a hot room for a couple years. When I went to remove the cel from the frame, I found that it had completely adhered to the copy background. Now I know better.

[nowherekid85]

In regards to accidentally wiping away airbrushing on cels, is the airbrushing usually on the back of the plastic or is it often found on the front? I do have cels with airbrushing that have microchamber paper in the cel bag. Would that somehow affect the airbrushing, if it happened to be painted on the front of the plastic?

[sensei]

It could scratch it. However, because this is such a fragile place to put airbrushing, it's normal studio procedure either to airbrush on the back or to put a blank cel sheet on top of any airbrushing on the top to protect it.

If you hold the cel at an angle to a light so that it reflects off the top surface, you can see whether the painting has been done on that surface or not. If so, you'll see the reflection dulled as it goes past the airbrushed part. If not, the surface will be shiny across the surface (except where trace lines are painted on the front, which some usually are).

I recently obtained a new cel from Sanrio's Yosei Florence movie (1985 anime homage to Fantasia). I found that the fairies' dresses were painted in white cel paint on the back, then airbrushed in color on the front. (They were also hand-traced: Sanrio allegedly lost an emperor's ransom on the film as production costs were exorbitant and the film tanked in domestic release.) Unfortunately, some previous owner didn't realize this, and there is a long streak on the front where some of this fragile paint was rubbed off. A shame, but the cel was inexpensive and Florencecels in any condition are rare to the vanishing point.

Another Sanrio project, Syrius no Densetsu/Sea Prince and Fire Child, also often has cels with fragile airbrushing on the front, especially the wings of the fire child Malta.

If this is your case, then it might be best to stick the MC paper to a partial sheet of plastic with doublesided tape (it's made acid-free for scrapbookers), Then put the paper back in with the plastic side toward the cel.