The state of the Anime Cel collecting community.

Hello jade duo,

It would be interesting if the cel community would come back together again, but I honestly don't think it will happen. I have been collecting since 2000 , made friends, friememies, and enemies in this hobby. I would like to say I was never part of all the drama that took place but I can' t because I was. I think in some way we all were. This hobby was a lot of fun, whether you like me or hated me everyone must admit things here were always interesting, sometime good sometimes not so good. I would really like to see new faces to this hobby, but cel collecting is not what it used to be and as much as you or I want it to change I think we both know it will not. Jason is a great guy for starting this site. At a time when the free sites geocities and the such started to fade away this place and beta were a good place to share a hobby that we all cared about and had in common. A lot of collecters and friends have moved on, they either sold , traded or kept either part or all of their collection. Well will be watching the beta awards from afar and hoping to see some new faces or some old ones for that matter. Wishing everyone good luck. Take care everyone, just remember to have fun in this hobby.

Later

(Steps on Soap Box)

Starfighter,

The community HAS been coming back, it is by no means dead, and has continued to get better in the last two years. I am very hopeful, with the newbies that have been popping up and with the re-emergence of some of the veterans! You calling the hobby dead is VERY pre-mature in my opinion. I also know you start a lot of the drama that you get involved with, the community has been VERY drama free since the last time you decided to flip out. I don't know why, I don't really care why.

You seem to be under this impression that we are all out to get you and this is just not true. I really think you need to evaluate how you react to things and stop being so negative, a little positivity I think overall would do you wonders. This is of course, just my opinion.

I myself, will continue to support the community as much as I can for as long as I can. Yes Jason, was awesome to get this up and running in the first place, however, I know a lot of us that have been around for a long time feel sort of abandoned. While we 100% appreciate what Jason still finds the time to do, we continue to be hopeful that he will come back and hang with us again ^_^;;

It is important that we continue to be positive and don't give into the naysayers! If you want to do something for the community, do it, reach out to your fellow collectors! Don't call it dead and disappear!

Also my handle is Jadeduo (one word) don't forget it! ^_~

I keep hearing about the heyday of cel collecting and while I really wish I'd seen it, I frankly doubt I could have handled it XD It may be 10+ years later but I still encounter enough temptation to regularly make my wallet cringe. Especially in the past few months. Some of the original collectors have been liquidating their collections, and while it's sad to see, it gives the new collectors a way to start up their own galleries.

I just started my gallery five years ago, and not to toot my own horn, but I think I have some really nice pieces. Maybe not as many full set ups as some, but some really solid shots. It shows that what might be a dried up market to some, still has a lot to offer to new collectors. Plus I think one's view can get skewed the more you collect. The more CCS cels I collect, the more I feel like the selection is less appealing because I already have shots that fulfill my wishlist.

The maintenance of Rubberslug is a bit worrisome, so I'd suggest holding on to your financial info in a spreadsheet and keep your scans. I'm going to make a word doc to save my commentary as well. As others have said, the website should continue running though improvements are unlikely, which I can only hope will eventually change. I'd love to see the search function fixed to include recent updates.

Anyway, the main thing we can do is keep the conversation alive and that seems to be the trend lately. I'm guilty of being a lurker but I'll put more of an effort in. The hobby is clearly still going as I've seen a new collector on RS every few days this month. Who knows if they are in it for the long run but the interest is at least there :)

I just have to say this when in that post did I say the hobby is dead

I would really like to see new faces to this hobby, but cel collecting is not what it used to be and as much as you or I want it to change I think we both know it will not.