Collection size and how did you start?

\\How many pieces do you all have in your collection and how did you get started?\\

As someone said earlier, having a mixture of paper and plastic items makes it difficult to figure. Some of my Chobits sets have over a hundred individual pages, only a few of them displayable.

I've got just over 400 individual items in my RS gallery, but some sketch sets get extended treatment. (I gave a separate gallery to my "Temptation of Eros" sketch set from TnN, which is still in my mind one of the most detailed and inventive sets I've ever seen.)

I'd guess, counting the sketch sets as individual items, somewhere between 275 and 300 pieces.

\\and how did you get started?\\

I remember with regret being in NYC during the early 1970s and seeing a set of high-end cels from \\Yellow Submarine\\ in a store window. I had enough money to get one or two ... but spent it on now-obsolete LPs instead. Later, I realized what a fool I'd been, and decided not to make the same mistake again.

So when I got interested in anime about 5 years ago (through my daughter, who was active in the Anime Club at Binghamton U and who considers my preference for shoujo series depraved and worthy of pity), I learned that nice cels from excellent series were readily available and within my academic's modest budget. So I started picking up a few every month, and broadened my interests as I went along.

---How many pieces do you all have in your collection and how did you get started?---

If I leave out the extras, bonuses and freebies I have about 290-295 cels. I don't have many sketches. I have a couple thick Hana Yori Dango sketch sets, but the other sketch "sets" consist of only 1-4 sketches each from about 8-9 different series.

---and how did you get started?---

Back in Jan-Feb 1997 I was looking around the internet (four months after I first got online) when I found online stores selling anime cels. I had been interested in acquiring anime cels for a few years since I first heard about them, but I had no way of doing so since I had no transportation, couldn't get online and didn't attend conventions.

I didn't check dealers websites very often so by the time came across something I liked it was always sold. By April 1997 I was getting kinda tired of not having bought a cel yet. So I went and searched to find the cel I wanted the most just to buy it (even if it was somewhat overpriced). My first cel was a Tenchi Muyo cel of Ryoko and Tenchi.

I only bought three cels the rest of 1997. That was my first complete year of requesting fansubs online and my second year of renting VHS anime from a nearby sci-fi/RPG/book/figures store. My interest in anime was growing to new shows, but it wasn't until Jan 1998 that I began to buy cels on a regular basis.

Before 1996 it was very difficult for me to see any anime except if I bought VHS tapes blindly. I wasn't prepared to do that given that VHS tapes cost $35-$50 for 30min-90min (usually 30min-60min) of anime back then. ^_^;;

I started collecting on Oktober 9th 2004

Cels: 10
Douga: 10
FanCels: 3

(^_^)
[color=#ff3355]Zetsu[/color]

So far in my gallery I have the following:

Cels 148
Sketches 12
Original Comic book artwork 48

I have about 30 cels & 120 sketches not shown and around 200 aditional Comic artwork most too large to scan.

I started collecting comic book artwork in 1978 a year before my wife and I got married. We have both a deep appreciation for the skill & talent of the artists we collect.

About 4 years ago we sat in on some Anime showings at the San Diego Comic-con for I was recovering from knee surgery that limited my walking. One we saw was the Oh My Goddess OVA #2 and fell in love with the artwork and the characters. We found & bought the dvd's and a few cels later at the con and that started our collection. We activily look for new items for our collection.

How many pieces do I have in my collection? Not counting sketch sets I think I have over 500 cels. Please don't make me do an accurate count I can hear my wallet scream.

What got me started collecting cels was Pencilboards. I was searching for them on Ebay and I kept seeing these "anime cels". I initially turned my nose up at them because they cost *gasp* [i]almost 50 bucks![/i]. I was browsing Mandarake's websites when I noticed they had auctions. After they personally walked me through the bidding in yen process, I won two cels: a Goku and a Chichi, for about $40 plus shipping. It has been a long slide down hill ever since.