Advice for people new to cel collecting.

I thought I'd start this thread so that everybody could post some of their often hard learned advice so that new people could learn from our mistakes. There seems to be some interest for this kind of topic since new people are coming to Rubberslug all the time.
Here's my little pieces of advice, forgive me if it sounds to simple.
1) Look around everywhere before you make your first purchase to make sure you're getting the best price. Many people overpay for their first cel.
2) Ebay and Yahoo Japan are great ways to find unique cels but, no matter how much you want something don't bid if the sellers feedback is bad or if something seems questionable about what they say about the item.
3) Don't be afraid to make offers on people's gallery cels, you never know when they might part with something that's really great. However, if they say not to make offers, DO NOT MAKE OFFERS, it's very rude if you do and the person may hold it against you for a long time. It is okay to compliment them on their cels though, and hope that they might think of you if their parting with something in the future.
4) If you collect from a high profile popular series such as, Oh My Goddess, Inu-Yasha, Dragon Ball Z, or Sailor Moon, you should be especially aware that there are very convincing fakes out there. If you don't make sure that you are buying from reliable sources you could make an extremely costly mistake.

Well, that's about it for me. I'm curious what advice everyone else will have to give. ^__ _^
Good luck to all the starting out new collecters who are reading this!

--Aurora

I think the problem is most new cel collectors don't bother to do any research until after buying a bunch of shiny new cels. So the people reading this are already past the first stage of collecting ;)

Just in case there are any new or new-er collectors reading this, I'd probably say to start small, maybe pick one or two series to start from. Make a list of characters and scenes you might like to have, and a set of standards for what you will and won't buy. And it helps ever so much to have actually watched the show you are collecting from, so you know which characters have a lot of screen time (and thus cels) and which ones don't, and which are more popular. This will help to make sense of the prices that you see in auctions and cel dealer sites.

Don't get blinded by a pretty background. I know I bought a few cels early on that had very nice backgrounds, that helped cover up that the cel if taken by itself, well, sucked. ;) It is real easy in the beginning just to buy everything you see, as you haven't really trained your eyes to tell the difference between a cel that is merely average, and one that is truly great. Spend lots of time looking at galleries - try to pick out your favorites in each gallery, then ask yourself why you like them so much. Then you can look for these same qualities in cels you buy yourself. Believe me, I have many many cels that I bought at the beginning of my...addiction that I wish I could sell for what I paid. New cels I don't have that problem, because I spend more time looking, first. With certain exceptions, of course, if you pass on a cel up for sale or auction now, another very similar to it will come around again, giving you another chance. So don't feel pressured. ;)

Here I go again :-)

"I think the problem is most new cel collectors don't bother to do any research ... "

Along the same lines, you can go to my "backdoor"(heh,heh) link page and get some tools and information to make your newbie collecting experience a less confusing one:

http://e.rubberslug.com/gallery/links.asp


~E

I haven't been collecting cels as long as a lot of people out there, a few years ago I was new to this, too. The best advice I can come up with personally, is to be patient and polite. It might sound a little more simple than it is.

Patient: Just because you didn't win that cel, missed a dealer's update or found a collector who is open to offers but doesn't want to sell you the prize of his/her collection you've been eyeing endlessly, doesn't mean there won't be another one a few weeks or a few months down the road, no matter how rare you think it is (well, with some exceptions.) Write to dealers about your collecting interests, while not all will respond, sometimes they don't have everything up on the websites. I've gotten some great cels from dealers who sold what they had on their site but happened to have a similar pose, etc. Ask the collector nicely to keep you in mind if he/she's ever selling. One of the nicest GW cels I have came from a collector who contacted me as I had admired her collection for some time and she had decided to sell a few things.

Polite: One of the worst (and ugliest) mistakes I've seen cel collectors do (I'm not speaking for everyone, there are plenty of nice collectors out there) is the "I didn't get it" rant on public forums. It's a piece of plastic, no one "deserves" it more than another person, whether they have 100 cels of that character or they didn't have any and that was the "only" one they EVER wanted. I started out with one cel just like everyone else. I haven't won/gotten everything I've gone after. There's nothing wrong with emailing a friend to express your disappointment but public bashing of whoever got what you wanted is just plain rude and uncalled for.

Guess that's all I can come up with for now.

Flippy

The thing I wish to add is your collection is your collection. It's not mine or E's or Flippy's. As long as you like it other opinions really don't count. So many people are collecting cels from DBZ, Inu-yasha, Sailor Moon, and others that you may feel pressured into buying one or more that you really don't want or need. Then when you figure out you really don't like it the rage has past and you end up selling it for less than what you paid. If you buy ones you like then when the time comes to clear out some of the collection letting the cel go for less so some one else can enjoy it feels much better.


GB