1) I don't remember exactly when I bought my first cel, I
do know it was off of ebay, and I took my cel collection with
me to Anime Expo last year (a whopping three cels! whoo) So
it's been at least a year, a little over that.

2) I've been trying to keep the cel spending habit down for
awhile so I can concentrate on saving for Anime Expo '00, and
also so I can buy more fansubs (it's ridiculous to spend more
on cels than anime itself, in my opinion. Plus I wann see Kenshin!
;;_;;) I spend about $50-$80 a month on average, about one 
cel a month.

3) My favorite cel? Well...the picture is too big to post here,
so I'll put a thumbnail here. It's not too impressive, it's not 
my best cel in terms of quality, but I've only seen one other 
cel from that episode and I love Lupin III so it's got a special
place in my heart. :P

4) My favorite place to buy cels is...gee...there are so 
many good places. I'd have to say Nichibei because they 
have some nice cels and they seem to know what the hell 
they're talking about when describing shows. Also, my favorite
cel came from there. :P The prices are reasonable too. 
anime-cel.com and Usagi's House tie for second because the
people at anime-cel.com are hilarious and have the best 
prices I've ever seen, and grr...I forgot her name...woman
who runs Usagi's House PERSONALLY kept her eyes out for Lupin
cels after I asked her about it at Anime Expo, although I didn't
buy them because they were from that recent movie I haven't
seen yet...also she sold me that other Yukito cel! ^^ 

5) a- I concentrate on specific series, mostly classic anime, 
      my big three are Lupin III, Dragonball (original) and   
      Miyazaki (I'm scouting for Future Boy Conan cels...lots of
      Japanese sites have really nice and cheap ones, but I can't
      order from them! ;_;)
   b- I don't go through the trouble of finding one cel per
      character, because there are some characters I really
      hate. As for Lupin III, I hope to have a cel of the other
      two main characters to round out my collection.

6) I bought my first cel from ebay...I bought two cels from
   a woman after her auction ended with no bids. I've sold 
   more cels on ebay than I've bought. Mostly because the 
   really nice cels are recognized and bid on by EVERYONE
   (Anubis....snif ;_;)

7) My little sister likes to look at my cels and won't let 
   me sell my Tasuki cel even if I wanted to. -_-; But she's
   12 and doesn't really care. My dad only thinks it's ok  
   cause he sees it as an investment. I know that if I decide
   to quit collecting I can get at least what I paid for 
   my collection, but worth is not an issue. 

8) My best friend also has a cel collection that rivals mine
   (grr...I wanna cel with a background TOO!) that you can
   view from a link at the bottom of my cel gallery. His father
   paid for us to go to Anime Expo last year and we're also 
   going this year.

9) Well, I collect cels because I've had a life-long love 
   of animation ever since I was big into watching Popeye 
   and Bugs Bunny cartoons on tv. Me collecting cels and 
   watching Japanese animation is just a further example 
   of my love of traditional animation. One of these days
   I hope to become an animator, or at least a cel painter...
   or actually, at this rate...a computer animator -_-

valerie