Advice for people new to cel collecting.

updated on 2017.06.16

How we built our collection. The following are five pieces of cel collecting advice we can share with anyone new to cel collecting.

First, conduct your 'due diligence' by carefully researching the availability and cel prices for any series you are considering buying. Doing your due diligence helps you understand two things: (a) how much you may end up spending (so you do not overpay), and (b) helps you to honestly assess, if you afford this luxury.

For new collectors, we advise you try not to obsess over obtaining cels and artwork from popular series. Sometimes artwork and cels are just not available. Many dealers and deep pocket collectors have already cornered the cel market especially for older series/movies. Accepting this will help keep things balanced and help remind you while you collect to have fun with this hobby.

Second, for new collectors with limited finances and/or existing debts, we caution you from starting to collecting cels. As many can attest to, if one does not have control over their finances, collecting cels will quickly lead into deeper debt. Two economical alternatives are fan cels and reproduction art. Both are nice ways of capturing anime and supporting talented artists.

Third, remain 'patient' with the cel collecting journey, because the market is cyclical. For example, former white hot series like Inuyasha, might be hard to find today; however, in a few years the series popularity will wane and the prices will stabilize.

Fourth, 'build up a network'. Much like job hunting, your time is limited and sometimes your what you know is not sufficient, so, it helps to know the right people too. Make time to connect with other collectors virtually through RS, AnimeBeta, Facebook groups, and the cels chat on Slack.com.

Fifth, 'focus' on what you really love and strive for quality over quantity. We feel we have a lot of success and fun by remaining patient, staying 'balanced' by keeping healthy, while simulataneously, saving monies for other life priorities.

Lastly, we remain a student of the market. After close to four decades of collecting, we firmly believe opportunities will always exist, but staying focused and saving until then, takes diligence, discipline, and patience. One day your dream cel may appear. The question is, will you will be ready? The choice is entirely up to you.

Happy hunting!

Cheers!

There are a lot of sterling points here, especially what Flippy, Walrus and Sensei have said.

NETWORKING is one of the best things you can do if you're serious about the hobby. You won't find your dream cels in an instant (which is part of the fun), they exist all over the world in many dark corners so having contacts is essential. You can't visit every cel retailer website, keep aware of their updates AND monitor the auctions sites every day so friends might just keep a lookout for you.
I managed to win a dream cel on YAJ only because a friend suggested I take a look!
Rubberslug and anime forums are a great place to start this networking- often members will advertise their cels to fellow board members without resorting to auction/websites.

[quote]
hyaku wrote:

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[/quote]

So is it okay to make an offer to owners of Rubberslug gallery?

It depends on the owner . . . many galleries state that none of the cels are for sale. It'd probably be best not to make offers to those owners, because you might make them mad. On the other hand, some people do not mind you making offers, but they have no intention of selling.

Every once in a while, owners will open up their entire galleries or sections of them for a set period of time.

So if you do end up making offers, I would suggest apologizing profusely after you make an offer. Something like, "I'm really sorry if you do not like offers . . ." Also it might help if you compliment their gallery before making the offer; kind of make the offer a little side note. Either that, or ask if they would be willing to take offers on "such and such."

Of course, this is just my opinion; I'm a pretty easy-going kind of girl, and I like getting emails. So let's hear from some others out there--especially those who say that none of their cels are for sale.

I don't know that you would need to apologize, as long as the gallery in question doesn't expressly state that they do not want/accept offers. However, if they say no or simply do not respond, I would leave it at that, and not press the issue.