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Bad collector! last modified: Sunday, July 29, 2007 (2:34:54 PM) I'm a bad collector. *sigh* When I got into the hobby back in September I think, I only had in mind to collect RK, Macross and my Robot Trilogy. The problem with this was the first two was expensive (thus my macross collection is so dismal) and eventhough Tadao's Trilogy is good to my pocket, they aren't plentiful and the cels do show their 30 year age. So I... Experimented with a few favorites, ones that I have very fond memories of, like Astro, FOR, YYH and Trigun... I also had "kept in mind" FY and MKR (that's more recent tho) since I have very fond memories of those too. And since I was having a ball with Hajime no Ippo and YUA, heck and they were plentiful it was fun to ummm buy buy buy. *sweatdrop*
*sigh* The the collecting bug hit me big time, that I had to get a cel of each character of each show I had. Litterally I would feel uneasy when I did not update a series... Now that was weird..... Thankfully enough that died down a little but in my mind I still think, I'd like to get a "few" nice cels of each show I really liked. Problem is... I like many shows and I do mean -many-, I always used to watch shows on the top 100 to 200 list on animenfo.com. Boo.... of course a lot of them was CG so that helps!!! Also my friend says I've gone pickier now, which probably explains my recent flurry of ebay activity and I've started to take down cels which I plan to let go of. What I really wanted to do was let go of entire series, I've had partial success with that and a mistake or two... In each of the series I've bought (and still have) from there are some cels that I just can't pry off my dead hands. Of course the bug still is there as I've just recently bought a VHD cel, because I really loved the artwork and after watching the movie I just had to get a cel from it. I'm not in any way in trouble financially, but I am the type of person who spends hours and hours deciding what to buy in the mall, pick it up, go around an hour and put it back. So this type of "cel activity" bothers me. People keep saying buy what you love and I do that religiously... I think that's too general of an advice and isn't working for me I guess. I've made a list of everything I'd like to get including prices I'm willing to pay... But in the back of my mind, I still wonder what really works? Some say it's much better to focus on a few series but are people really happy with that? Because as far as I go, i've learned although I love my robot shows and RK, I wasn't totally happy keeping to just those (sometimes I even got bored!) although hunting for a few is more efficient. And yet I hate to see a series with only one or two cels either, and since you can't dedicate as much time hunting for many different series, it's not an efficient way to collect either. I mean the good cels take some work to find and just to keep up with the "market" can make one's head spin. One can also ask before buying, will I ever sell this cel in the future? Realistically yes, for a better cel or for really important matters. The goal of a collector I think is to get better cels and the responsibility of a person is to know when something is more important than what they do for a hobby. Oh boy... I'm hopeless as a collector... I'm sure many of you have gone through many stages and maybe even the same dilemma as above. What solution or middle ground did you find that kept you happy?
I dunno: I''ve gone through a couple of stages in collecting, from curious, to impulsive, to picky, to grabby, and back and forth depending on time and situation. In the last year, particularly, I''ve massively expanded my collection, adding quite a few new series that I hadn''t ever expected to collect. Now I''m essentially locked down, due to packing and moving my household, so I''ve had a chance to get a long view of my activities. My reaction: do what makes you happy with owning your collection. If you can really enjoy looking through your books or boxes or (as I admit I do from time to time) your own RS gallery, feel satisfied with what you have, then you''re doing the right thing. Even if it''s not someone else''s "right thing" ("Better one''s own dharma, though imperfect," Krishna told Arjuna, "Than another''s well performed.") The danger (and I''ve had to watch this) is to let the thrill of acquisition take charge of your collecting. Then the joy of having something takes second place to the joy of getting something new, and that can be problematic in lots of ways. As you say, it then chews up a lot of time that could be better spent in making sure that your collection is being maintained in a way that will keep your cels in top condition for a long time. Bottom line: ask yourself what kinds of cels/sketches make you feel really happy when you look at them, both for the first time, then later on, when the thrill of acquisition has faded. Then point your collecting efforts in that direction, and you can''t go wrong. As collectors in other fields say, the pleasure of seeking, finding, and viewing fine objects far outweighs any other consideration, e.g., apparent value, rarity, popularity, and so on. Just my 500 yen.
I couldn''t agree more with sensei''s post. I''ve been collecting cels for about 3 years now, and believe that just about everyone goes through certain "cycles" of collecting. Especially in the beginning, LOL. There''s the almost inexplicable thrill of the first cel, often accompanied by a, ermmm...''shopping spree'' of others XD. I agree with sensei that the key to enjoyable cel/sketch collecting is finding that middle ground between compulsive spending and the strong desire to save for those Holy Grail cels should they ever surface. If you find yourself enjoying the purchase of artwork vs. the actual ownership of the artwork, my personal opinion as that you need to step back and re-evaluate your collecting habits (Note: By no means whatsoever do I believe this scenario currently applies to you or anyone, it''s just my point of view :) Also, compulsive spending on artwork may very well be a preference to some collectors. To those that applies to, all the power to you ^_^). I, as well as I''m sure many others, are guilty of a compulsive spending cycle even if only for a very short period of time. So don''t feel bad if you think you''ve caught yourself doing that. Be happy that you DID catch yourself. That way you''re able to re-evaluate your collecting habits and move on accordingly. As for me, I still catch myself once in a while almost making (or making XD) and impulse purchase. Sometimes they''ve paid off, sometimes not. But that''s the way life goes sometimes. Currently I''m thrilled to bits at where my collection stands. Not all my cels/sketches may be considered desireable by the masses, but I''m sure as heck pleased with them. And that''s ALL that matters to me :) I personally don''t find it bad when you only own 1 or 2 cels/sketches from a series. In fact, I''ve got a few series where I only own 1 or 2 pieces from. But that goes back to sensei''s post when he explains that certain cels can have you staring at them in awe long after the "oooohhhh Shiny!" status has fa
*sorry, original entry was too long, here''s the rest ^^;* faded away. So long as those onesies and twosies fall into that category, you''re bound to be more than satisfied with ''em ~_^ Bleh, now I''m just dragging on. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Hope you find that middle ground you seek soon ^_^ - RalphVboy P.S. Congrats on the Meier cel, ''tis a beauty and a steal *was watching that auction* ^__^
I''ve had some impulse buys and some "bulk buys" before. Usually those are where I get pieces I''m not so happy about, but it''s been a while since that happened and I won''t let it happen again. For one, I''m not as excited to upload them and sometimes I think that they take up space. For all my "whee love all the cels", no I don''t love it all (please don''t kill me T_T). Since I like to store my cels well, I have maintenance cost too so anyway I''m coming to find out that it''s better for me to spend on only one cel, than get another cel that I got just to save shipping fees. I admit that initially I was more about quantity than quality, either that or I was buying "place-holders" for characters I wanted a cel of right away... That doesn''t work either I guess. Sensei, I think you gave very good advice. I''m going to sit down with my cels again and flip through them. See which ones (or which types) still make me go "wow". For the most part I have done this recently and I think it''s probably more about now I''m noticing I actually do like good looking cels. At first i really didn''t care all that much as long as it was affordable and a character that I liked or need "now". *sweatdrop* Funny how things changed. Of course this don''t apply to wolfie he always gives a big bright smile on my face even if some of my cels of him ah get "nicknames". :) Ralph, thank you for giving your thoughts too. Yep as I said above I did have the spending spree and impulse buys earlier on but that is much more curbed now. As for ownership vs acquisition, the thrill is great but the ownership is greater. This is very true for *cough* wolfie but applies to almost all cels I own. It''s I guess now a matter of quality that i''m looking for. But not just that, I''m still torn about collecting certain series exclusively so I can pour my efforts into that or collecting from a wide variety of shows (that meant something to me of course), trying to get nice cels in the process. Each one represents some
(cont''d) sort of compromise, I guess. I just want to be at peace with myself with regards to this because I swing from one day deciding to just focus, to the next when I find myself discontented that I still want to continue to buy a few of those I don''t actively collect. What''s interesting is, I find more keepers in my ''not actively collecting'' pile than my focus pile. Maybe it''s because I''m more careful about buying for those I don''t actively collect. I hope I made sense. I guess I should just be more careful... Goodness knows when cels of my favorite character comes up, all bets are off. *sigh* But so far I think I''ve kept my collection intact eventhough I swing from one type of collecting to another. It''s really a decision I need to make for myself but finding it hard to do. The VHD cel was a good example. I loved the cel, the character, the price and the movie itself. I think passing up a cel from a series I don''t actively collect would break my heart more times than necessary. So perhaps I just need to get over the "completeness" bug if I want to continue this way, and just appreciate each cel individually and not be worried that it''s the only cel I have of a series. |
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