Considering some concerns were raised from the RS "Let it Out" and AB "Pet peeves"

Hi everyone! Considering some concerns were raised from the RS "Let it Out" and AB "Pet peeves" threads, we feel it is long overdue to create a counterpart thread to keep things in perspective. =)

Now please do NOT be shy. Come out of hiding, end your lurking, boogie on down, and share something fascinating with everyone! After all doesn't everyone enjoy reading information that actually helps? Sharing IS what makes our community stronger.

So, let us all know your thoughts to the following questions:

1) What have you LEARNED from your cel collecting experiences? =) E.g. about YOURSELF, life, people, communication, patience, maturity, finance, business, animation, j-pop, culture, Japan, etc.

2) What are you most GRATEFUL for in our hobby? =) E.g. rubberslug, acquired cels, art, new friends, becoming a part of a community, growing with the animes you love, introducing new people to our hobby, etc.

It is fascinating to hear what others have to share. We ALL have somethings we are grateful for and hopefully we all learned things during our cel collecting adventures. CHIME IN!

Cheers! ^_^

Cel collecting has taught me the meaning of endless, lifelong, to the max. credit card debt!

But at least I met alot of nice & interesting people along the way...

I am a little late to this thread, but I think it is a great idea.

There are many things I have learned from this hobby.
1. Learning HTML and later XML/CCS and a vey little JavaScript. When I started collecting RS did not exist, and I admired all the galleries that other collectors had made. This led me to want to create my own. I ended up buying some books and teaching myself what I needed to know. On top of that there were some very helpful people in the community that showed my how to get started finding a web host and all. Even though none of them are around any more, I will always be grateful for their kindness and helpfulness.

2. Learning more Japanese. I am half Japanese and knew a bit from talking from my grandmother as a child. I think she always regretted that our family lost the ability to speak it. After getting more involved with collecting (esp with buying off of YJ and Japanese dealers) my vocabulary has expanded (a little) and my reading (a lot). Asking my grandmother for a translation or using new words excites her a lot, and it is nice to see her so happy once she gets going.

3. Traveling to Japan. This is something I would never have thought doing of on my own; no matter how big an anime fan I was. Then I learned that I could go to shops in Japan to look at cels in person. Once there, I learned a lot of history from going to museums, parks, and other places. Not only that, my grandmother, who had not been there for many years, came with me. I got to meet a number of relatives that I never knew I had.

4. Introduction to other genres of anime. I am mainly referring to YAOI. It is certainly not something I would have had any interest in on my own. It was not until I started reading posts at cel forums that I decided to check it out. FAKE was my first show, and it was love at first sight. On top of that, I figured no one in my family would be familiar with or even interested in YAOI. Imagine my surprise when my sister-in-law brought it up while visiting one Christmas. She had been forcing my brother to watch with her. I had been away from home to attend school when she met and married my brother so she was a bit of a stranger to me. Oddly enough, it was discussing different YAOI/anime shows and cels that enabled us to initially get comfortable with each other.

There are so many other positive things that have come out of cel collecting; such as meeting a lot of wonderful people/collectors, etc that I can't even address since I have already taken up too much space as it is.

Heh. Where to start? I guess the main thing would be that it's taught me volumes about the creativity and artistic work that goes into even the simplest animated sequence. Watching an anime episode for the final visual effect is one thing, but collecting cels and sketches makes you look at it in detail, even pausing a DVD or VHS and appreciating a cut frame by frame. This appreciation transfers to any animated film I watch: I was even wondering what the sketches looked like while I was watching the Disney "Princess and the Frog" this holiday.

Grateful? Certainly, as others have said, for good friends whom I'd have never met, either online or face-to-face, without being brought together by a common quirky passion.

Money? Meh! -- it would have been spent anyhow. I've had fun, and that's priceless!

1) LEARNED from your cel collecting experiences?

a. Know current market prices. Cels fluctuate just like stocks so keep your eyes peeled so you don't overpay or miss out on good deals.

b. Search around, visit other sites outside eBay for those hard-to-find cels that people stash in private collections. You might just get that treasured cel from a cel forum than an auction site.

c. When you see a cel you really want and may regret not having, snatch it up quick. There have been many times where I saw a cel/art for sale and waited til I got home to try and buy it and end up finding out it sold already.

d. Figure out you minimum spending price and stick to it. There's a few things in my collection I overbid since I just got into a bidding war for the heck of it.

e. In relation to #d, if you have a minimum, if there's something you consider a must have... go for it. A few Gatchaman and Macross cels skipped by me by just a bit over my maximum that I regret not going for years later.

I still remember missing out on Yahoo! Japan a full group cel of the Gatchaman team years ago that would have been amazing to have since I've never seen a good group cel before or since.


2) What are you most GREATEFUL for in our hobby?

a. Being able to relive fun childhood experiences and being able to connect with a show through cel/art.

b. Friendly bidding wars with the same old people over certain series cels. Tough to lose out on a bid, but nice to see that the winner is someone that really enjoys the hobby and DISPLAYS the cels for the public on RS.

c. The uniqueness of animation cel collecting. Unlike autograph, stamps, coin, toy collecting, etc., when you have a cel you know its one-of-a-kind. There may be other cels from the series, but the one you hold is just of that particular scene and will not be replicated again.

3. Additional listing. My GRIPES about this hobby:

a. Overpricing of cels for sale. It is not that hard to find out what the current rates for cels are, so if a cel has routinely sold for $30 for the last year then a similar cel you're trying to auction off should probably not start at $999. That's just ridiculous. I know you say you'll only sell it at such a high price since you love it, but come on, collector's know the market rate and will not pay 1000000% over price because you love your cel.

b. So few cel collectors sharing their collections online (like on RS). It's like private art collectors just placing a Monet or Picasso in their basement and never showing it to anyone else. Spend a few minutes to take a photo of it and upload to RS, share your art with the world.

c. Final gripe. The end of cels, few and far-between are cartoons done by hand. Soon, there will likely be no hand-drawn cartoons left so the hobby will shrink significantly thereby either closing out new collectors (ex. comic book collecting) from enjoying it or making the prices of cels even higher thereby only hard-core collectors able to use their money for this pursuit.