How much is YOUR collection worth?

[chibikitty2045]

well, After going through my cel books and such, I just had to ask this question. How much money have you plunked down to this hobby? Forgive me if its already been posted. Just a rough estimate of how much you think you have spent. Is there a collector who has spent over a million for his/her collection? Sorry, if i am getting to personal. You can include the cels that you have sold as well.

from when I started till now, I have spent: $22,000 - $24,000 on cels.

[ReiTheJelly]

A better way to do this would be to create a poll - that way people have a little bit of anonymity when answering.

I know there used to be a thread about this topic, but it is most likely a number of years old...

[Cloud]

How do you know? "There you go again. "--Reagan

[Ryouko]

I can't remember what I paid for most of my cels, considering they were bought several years ago. It's also hard for me to estimate their value, cause my mind is still set to the days when I originally bought them, when prices were much cheaper. x_o So I have nooo idea. XD

But I have 47 FY cels online, and a few others not in my gallery, plus all my sketches and miscellaneous cels.

[sletia]

That's easy.
The ones that I really care about are priceless.
And that's all that matters.

[sensei]

Many people have an idea that collecting, if one follows it at all ardently, is a very expensive fad, entailing a large outlay, and can only be pursued by one with plenty of money to spare. This, I think, is quite a wrong conception.

A much fairer way is to consider your collection, of whatever it may consist, as a savings bank, your deposits being the items which you add from time to time. If you buy intelligently and wisely – which you will undoubtedly do after the newness has worn off and you acquire a good working familiarity with your particular hobby – you will find that your bank is paying you a fairly respectable rate of interest in the natural and inevitable increase in values as the years go by.

The known supply [of a given type of collectable] is gradually diminishing. Fire, decay, and accidents take their toll each year. The number of collectors, on the contrary, is increasing year by year. As the supply gradually diminishes and competition to possess becomes keener and keener, more people are attracted each year, so that the inevitable result is gradually increasing prices for those pieces which do find their way to market. Collectors will find that the better the pieces, the more rapidly values go up.

You have the satisfaction of acquiring, the pleasure of daily enjoyment in the sight or use of those things in which you delight. If your circumstances change, or you tire of your particular branch of collecting, or for any other reason wish to dispose of your collection, you will undoubtedly find that you can realize your entire outlay with a handsome margin of profit besides. The enjoyment of ownership for all the intervening years has cost you nothing.

Laying all monetary considerations aside, I feel perfectly safe in saying that at least ninety-nine out of ever hundred collectors will tell you that the pleasure of seeking and finding outweighs the cost many times over.

-- Arthur H. Hayward, Colonial Lighting. 1927; rpt. New York: Dover Publications, 1962. Pp. 160-162.

Golly, what else is there to say on the subject? His comments on selling one's collection at a profit is, of course, less true when collectors buy at haste and then have to sell in distress. And long-term worth involves keeping items in good condition when the materials themselves suffer from "inherent vice" (i.e., intrinsic instability, such as trace lines covered with orange cel paint, or sketches put together with adhesive tape) But I think for people who think in the long term, rather than in short term worth, his final sentence is the weightiest. How could I ever "sell" the joy of hunting and getting some of the scenes that mean the most to me? Life lived well is something beyond the most precious of jewels, gold ingots, or Monet canvases.

[Cloud]

You ask difficult questions.

[miz ducky]

When I read all these posts, all it tells me is that you've spent more than what you want to think about, and therefore don't want to answer the question.

I don't know for sure, but I guess it easily falls into one of the categories above, and so I voted.

[Keropi]

Well let me see...

The last time I think I tried to figure this out was on July 13, 2005 and at that point I was around $22,000. I've discovered through the years that two to four thousand dollars a year is pretty easy to spend.

So I've got to be around $29,000 to $31,000 area by now, but that's just a guess.

And I know I haven't spent that much compared to a number of you all.

[buttrflym]

Um...started calculating and gave up...I just don't want to know the exact fact but lets say, I could either buy a kick butt car or have a nice starting payment on a house. Scary.

buttrflym

[Cloud]

Don't be afraid, buttrflym.

[buttrflym]

Don't be afraid, buttrflym.

I am very afraid Cloud.

[Cloud]

Enough about me, let's talk about my dress.

[star-phoenix]

Ummmm, I am too scared to even think about it.

[graymouser]

I keep pretty detailed records and know down to the penny. I would rather not go into details here though.

Lets just say that I blew past the $50,000 mark sometime in 2004.