Fortress_Maximus

Excellent cel preservation and storage strategies jvmacross and oden. Thanks for sharing! I employ a variety of cel preservation techniques with considerable success. I hope sharing our collective cel preservation and storage strategies can help other cel collectors too. Your mileage may vary. Cel bags are replaced semi-annually and the corners are cut so fumes do not get trapped. Cels are never sealed or taped shut. All dougas, gengas, settei, and backgrounds are separately bagged and stored away in another Itoya folder. Every three months the folders are inspected for possible odors (paint fumes) or bag warping indicating vinegar syndrome. Every six months cels are also removed from the respective bags and allowed to breathe overnight. This is only done in a cool, darkened room with no ambient lighting. Also, avoid stacking cels and cel book to reduce paint cracking due to applied pressure. If space permits, hang the folder by using a sturdy wooden hanger placed into the center and have a support shelf underneath. Alternatively, the folders can be placed vertically with generous spacing between folders to reduce falling or pressure. To reduce moisture use silica packets and place in-between folders and in various corners of the storage unit. You can make small packets using kitty litter or baking soda. Also avoid storing folders in containers that are fully enclosed unless routinely inspected; the bear minimum is annually. Hanging cels in a portfolio display folder or filing cabinet works too, provided the storage unit is moisture free, climate controlled and not exposed to swings in external heat and cold. Using acid free backing cardboards with archival quality MicroChamber paper can help preserve your cels too. Experiment purchasing MicroChamber paper for more valuable cels and artwork. Lastly, all of these cel preservation strategies help, but in my experience none are full proof. Intangibles that affect the speed of deterioration include, how the cel was stored prior to purchase, the type of cel (TV vs OVA vs movie vs hanken mono), and the age. Eventually the vast majority of production cels and even hanken monos will deteriorate; I feel we are merely temporary curators for these memorable creative works. Discuss if you have more preservation ideas or wish to share your experiences and challenges.

Nice cels Oden. Thanks for sharing!

Actually no one here stated you should solely rely on cel fading as a sign of aging, or more importantly, authenticity. Experienced cel collectors use multiple factors enabling them to deduce the cel authenticity. As a novice collector, consider reviewing the detailed analysis some of us provided regarding the recent round of SDFM TV cel forgeries. I feel fortunate during my 30+ years of cel collecting I bought cels I have zero doubt are authentic. In my experience high quality Macross cels such as the recent group of well made forgeries appear infrequently. A healthy amount of skepticism is important when evaluating high end cels of that caliber. If you tracked or researched cels over the years, you are probably familiar with the counterfeits historically available. This is why it is important for buyers to identify what type of seller offer such wonderful treasures. Cel sellers typically fall into four categories: a) established dealers, b) speculators/flippers, c) blackhole/closet collectors, and d) counterfeiters. Ask yourself the following questions: 1) Which type of seller do you think consistently sells the highest volume? 2) Do you feel business longevity matters? 3) Would you be more or less willing to buy from a cel seller who has operated for over 20 years? 4) Which type of seller has the highest priced cels (sitting on dead inventory) and does not sell? 5) Do you feel price gouging is a prudent business practice? 6) Which type of seller do you think has repeat buyers? 7) And which type of seller are you more likely to trust to not sell forgeries? Odds are the majority of your answers will lead you to established cel dealers who do not price gouge. Also, do not discount the fact most online cel sales are conducted between complete strangers. Wouldn't you agree, understanding the seller's reputation, history, experience, network, inventory, and pricing practices, can help you make an educated decision? Become a 'student of the market' and conduct your due diligence through careful research. By doing so, you may learn about a seller's reputation and other important factors. Over the years, I find the more effort I dedicate to understanding the complexities of cel collecting, it helps me determine if the seller is trustworthy. Lastly, in the future I suggest conducting your own due diligence to increase your understanding about cels. Then the likelihood of experiencing buyers remorse, again, may decrease. Good luck.

Indeed. With this recent situation, USA ebay user 'production_archives' bought Macross cels that were too good to pass up. Unfortunately, he burned himself by excessively overpaying for counterfeit Macross cels he did not carefully research, nor understand. In terms of legal recourse, since he obtained them outside of the USA it is unlikely he can file in small claims court. This entire situation serves as a good reminder when considering buying anime cels. As cel collectors we must conduct our own due diligence and understand to the best of our ability, the seller's history, reputation, and the authenticity of the cels offered, before committing to purchase. It also helps to become a student of the market to gain greater insight into comparable sales and identify who are reputable sellers. As we are increasingly encountering sellers purely driven by greed who price gouge, we need to protect ourselves. So, when in doubt proceed carefully, because if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

That custom 1/55 job is awesome!

Good point. If a best offer was accepted the price would not be revealed to other ebay users. Since the seller is starting with BIN it will be interesting to see if any of the asking prices are met. I think he might do better with a traditional auction set up and a reserve.

It might be worth the sellers time to add a 'make a best offer' feature to some of the listings. By doing so, it will help reveal the price ranges buyers are actually willing to pay.

It is a nice to educate the seller, but I do not feel it is the responsibility of buyers to do so. The onus squarely falls on the seller to accurately represent and describe their merchandise. This situation is no different than in the purchase of real property. Sellers are required to disclose all material and relevant facts that may influence a buyer's decision to purchase. Failure to disclose or misrepresenting the property condition, history, features, et al, is the sellers responsibility. Additionally, buyers do not need to inform a seller of anything discovered when they conduct their own inspection. Now buyers can choose to do so and use that information to help negotiate a more favorable offer, but again, the buyer is not responsible for educating the seller. For potential cel buyers, yes they need to know whether the merchandise they are buying is legitimate and adding 'fan cel' to the auction title can help. I still feel this seller was motivated by greed and acted out of ignorance; I find no reason to trust a seller who acts in such a manner. I will be extremely surprised if anyone buys these overpriced fakes, only time will tell.

It is definitely highly suspicious this ebay seller 'production_archives' uses the same font type and size as 'urbantreasurehunterjapan'. Even if 'production_archives' isn't one and the same user and if he is not lying, he is still grossly ignorant about high end cels (specifically Macross cels). It is clear he failed to conduct his own investigation on the fake YJA cel supplier/seller 'h230525', as well as the products he bought. Ebay user 'production_archives' is price gouging buyers; that's mainly why I feel contacting 'production_archives' and correcting his ignorance and mistakes does not help the buyers. Doing so does not help warn future buyers and certainly won't make the seller re-think his pump and dump modus operandi.

It's highly unlikely any of the fake cels being offered by 'production_archives' are associated with or used in the SF Challenge. All of the fake cels were from the tv series or taken from hanken monos.

The ebay seller 'production_archives' is blatantly lying by claiming those Macross cels are actual production cels. Odds are 'production_archives' is not even a cel collector, otherwise he would not have overpaid for fakes. Even if he actually believed those fake Macross cels were authentic, he clearly doesn't understand the cel marketplace. If those were authentic the prices would run far higher. In the unlikely event he actually manages to deceive a buyer into believing these fakes are genuine, he can expect to issue a full refund. Lastly, even if this seller is not 'urbantreasurehunterjapan", both sellers are price gougers and prey on the ignorance of buyers. Considering there are few cel collectors and even fewer Macross cel collectors, most buyers are aware of the unethical business practices demonstrated by both of these sellers. I feel there is absolutely no need to educate them or help them correct their mistakes, especially when they are price gouging buyers.

Kabanari, Arslan and MS The Origin

Sure it is possible these could be studio promotional cels. But considering the high number of cels are from key sequences, it is unlikely all of these are promotional cels. Additionally, something worth nothing, this seller 'h230525' does not have an established history as a cel reseller or collector. In the end, the closing prices are too inflated for reproductions.

That is shikishi by Tenjin is a thing of beauty! Congrats!

Hope the buyer of those fakes is our good friend the deadbeat scalper 'urbantreasurehunterjapan'.

Some of the recent Macross A level cels (significant scenes, composition), are simply good fakes. Given the significance of these cels if authentic, they would be 'tome' or should appear as 'A1' and 'END', if, the proper sequence numbers were listed. It's important to understand cel production sequence numbers and how/why they correlate with timing sheets. Keeping this in mind, it is clear if these were production cels they would require sequence numbers and these cels have none. As tepidarium noted, one concern is the seller and/or fan cel creator(s) might be deliberately attempting to pass these fakes as authentic. The descriptions in the listings do not clearly state these are fake and even go as far as to claim they are old. However, even a rudimentary analysis of the cels reveal characteristics atypical of 30 year old production cels, namely: exceptionally sharp lines, vibrant paint colors, and minimum oxidation.

Really hoping this film will eliminate the Mary Sue characterization prominently displayed in TFA. Disney is clearly on a feminist crusade with the SW franchise and it does not look like it will stop this anytime soon.

Surprised no one shared any of the following: Flashpoint: Donnie Yen vs Yu Xing & vs Tony Collin Chou (2007) https://youtu.be/8VfAWV_3dCU Saat Po Long (aka Kill Zone): Donnie Yen vs. Jacky Wu Jing (2005) https://youtu.be/G6vrh6eDNDg Tom Yum Goong (aka Protector): Tony Jaa vs. 70 thugs (2005) https://youtu.be/GhAjhoOFgoI Tom Yum Goong (aka Protector): Tony Jaa vs. Nathan Jones (2005) https://youtu.be/bizrduWSCDI Tiger Cage II: Donnie Yen's impressive legwork vs Michael Woods (1990) https://youtu.be/XhT_iNYPCX4 Not claiming any of these are the greatest fight scenes, but they are certainly worth being recognized. Others have already recognized Scott Adkins as Yuri Boyka and Tony Jaa from Ong Bak. Anyone else have more to share?

Here are more good cel resources: http://www.animanga.com/cels/info/cels.html http://www.srlabs.com/ Attached is a helpful cel grading guide by Brian Martinez.

Some DYRL cels

@ JetJockey: The brick and mortar anime stores carrying anime production cels, posters, books, LDs and CDs in Northern California were often owned by small entrepreneurs. These were smaller stores, nothing like the corporate Warner Brothers stores/cel galleries. Most of these stores have closed down due to a variety of reasons. I knew many of the owners and they typically visited Japan to build connections and obtain their cel inventory. The thing to remember is anime production cels/artwork just was not in high demand in North America in the 80s-90s. I saw many great cels from GunBuster, Battle Angel Alita, Ah Megami-sama, Urusei Yatsura, Iczer-1, Dangaioh, and Macross etc, literally sit unpurchased for months. However, after the net internationally collectors started to connect with many of these boutique sellers and the inventory dwindled.

@ JetJockey, yes anime production cels from SDFM TV, DYRL, Mospeada and Southern Cross were available in the 80s in North America. I acquired many during that period and throughout the 90s too without going to Japan. As jvmacross commented some businesses offered them via mail order and depending on your location, there were brick and mortar stores that sold them too. Some local stores in Northern California sold cels too, but most businesses were forced to close due to the increasing costs of keeping the business profitable pre-internet boom. Also, if you research more about anime cels in general and the history of existing online cel businesses / brick and mortar stores, you will discover there are only a handful of active dealers (the rest are defunct).

@ Global, nice hanken mono! Glad a Macross fan acquired it and not our good friend urbantreasurehunter. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you jvmacross and tepidarium for sharing your thoughts. Hopefully BaronV, Mokman and other cel collectors will chime in too. I concur in the future more cel collectors will continue to liquidate. Much like tepidarium, I believe we have already been experiencing collectors liquidating in cycles for over the last decade. When you examine the sales of 70s-90s anime production cels and particularly original Macross TV, movie, and OVAs cels/art, the sales were steady. I am tracking sales back pre-90s until present and Macross cel prices have gone in cycles; high-end cels commanded a premium and prices for B to C grade cels remain in flux. Naturally there are some non-Macross cel series that just are not in demand, or the sellers overprice causing the inventory to sit (think our good scalper/gouger friend urbantreasurehunter). But as a whole cel collectors are selling now. In the future will the demand for anime production cels hold compared to currently levels? Personally I feel the demand of anime cels as a whole will decrease with the exception of certain key films/series (e.g. Ghibli, Macross, Gundam, etc). Historically former 'kings' of anime such as: Z Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, Ah Megami-sama, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma, Sailor Moon, Ghost In the Shell, and Fist of North Star, have cooled considerably. Also, if you examine the demographics of active cel collectors, it tends to fall within the Baby Boomers, Gen X to Gen Y groups. These are the very same group of collectors that are now selling mainly because they are preparing for the life experiences such as starting to build a family, buy a house (or two), and basically moved on... living life. More often than not, younger (potentially new) collectors are not interested in cel collecting as a hobby, they prefer buying the newest tech devices and entertain themselves with social media and games. Try visiting the cel forums, ask cel dealers and you will find very few teenagers in are the hobby, it is mainly mid-late 20s up to mid 30s. Additionally within the online cel community activity is quite stagnant; point in fact, 2015 was the first time the face-to-face cel gathering at AX was cancelled due to the lack of attendees. In my experience most cel collectors sell their collections to solve increasing financial responsibilities. As I previously shared, almost all of the original cel collectors I knew (during the last 35 years) sold off their collections, quit entirely, and just stopped engaging with the community. I discovered the most common reasons why cel collectors quit were: marriage, buying a home, paying the mortgage, starting a family funding college, aging parents, saving for early retirement, and traveling, etc. I envision in the future I will entertain offers to sell and trade. Fortunately I never viewed cel collecting as an investment, so I do not feel the need to sell to recoup initial costs. I am open if the offer prices are right. The longer I collect (30+ years) I find I am happiest with more freedom and shared experiences instead of things. In the future when I look back on my life, I know I will not wish I spent more time buying more things. If there is any sense of regret, it will be associated with not spending more time sharing life experiences connecting with people during my limited lifetime. Perhaps most importantly, I would not want to rob my future self; I might wish for a Mustachian face punch earlier and learn frugality so I could save more and gain financial independence sooner. Lastly, I find the more things I own just creates more stress and worry; I prefer to be live a happier, healthier and balanced life. Just my ten cents; your mileage may vary. Questions to cel collectors: What are some tips and/or lessons that helped you? A couple cel collecting lessons that helped me include: budgeting purchases, networking, and to always save more for your own retirement. The last lesson is key and has helped some of my friends to achieve early retirement (which may or may not be your goal). Looking forward to hearing your ideas and other thoughts on cel collecting too. Thanks!