1 of 1 Cels....What The...?

With Japanese and Amercian studios offering 1 of 1 or replicant Cels based on production drawings, collecting cels have taking a new turn. It's understandable that those of us used to collecting our favorite characters on celluloid would be interested in such a product. But where should studios draw the line (not a pun)? I saw a Gallery that was offering the option of a 1 of 1 cel for a production drawing from The New Batman/Superman Adventures (1997). My problem with this is that Cels were made for those episodes. Does it "raise" the value of the actual producton cel if there is a 1 of 1? Or does it become less special? The Golden rule..."If you collect what you like, you will aways be happy." So who cares? Right? But their should be a line.
Later,
Mark

It is possible that the original cel of that scene is no longer in existence. A lot of production companies have destroyed cels used for their shows, so the particular cel that the company has made may no longer be in existence. If that's the case, then, it sounds perfectly resonable that a repro was made.

However, if the cels are still in existence and the studio in question is not one that destroyed its art, then, I would think that this would not be ok. Not only does this decrease the value of the cel that some collector may have paid thousands for, but I believe this really depreciates the hobby as a whole. What's the point of spending your money on something that may be up for 'reproduction' cel status..or worse yet, it may be a reproduction labeled as a production cel.

Hm... this sounds interesting and somewhat problematic. Does anyone know which type of scenes are being considered for the one to one cels? If someone has pics and more specifics like pricing and what not, I'd like to know. Thanks!

This has actually been done before in anime. I'm not sure if it was done on a 1 of 1 scale or not, but both Hunter x Hunter and Fushigi Yuugi have reproduction cels from episodes that were animated using cels. In fact, I know that there are several copies of a Kuroro from HxH on RS right now . . .

I personally don't think that it will affect the value of the actual production cel. People might pay $100 or more for a repro, but I believe that they would pay 5x that much for the production cel, because most of these repros are taken from very key scenes and are primo shots. Yes, there's always the chance that a repro could be mistaken for a production cel, but that's a risk we take in this hobby. It wouldn't be the first time that someone purchased non-production art (ala repros or fanart) believing it to be production.

Disney does this practice with a lot of their canon because their policy is to keep a lot of the production material safely locked away underground. Their vaults are actually surrounded by salt. But anyway, they attempt to keep the production materials for reference in future restoration projects. You can often find repros of certain scenes or characters from various Disney movies. These are not cheap and do not depreciate the value of the production cels (if you're lucky enough to find those for sale). The repros are often expensive due to the time that is put into making them, they are high quality works of art. There are also a variety of different kinds of repros. Some are simply limited production hand painted cels with no background or additional elements. Others are much more complex, sometimes featuring more than one layer and giclee backgrounds.

I think sometimes there is a ripple effect where the original production cel, if it exists and if it's even for sale, actually increases in value because of the reproductions. The more "hardcore" collectors seek the original production item because they understand its rarity and significance in the making of the film. The repro would be a few hundred dollars while the original would be a few thousand dollars.

A lot of these reproductions were designed as merchandise for the studios' respective stores. I don't know how often you see repros in the Disney stores anymore, only because everything is CGI nowadays. Before the WB store went belly up, you could find these types of things for sale.