Hi,

Maybe this will provide some insight for all you 
collectors in college.  I started collecting cels 
when i was a junior in college(1998/99).  I 
started with random cels from Card Captor, FY, 
and other misc. series, and none of my cels were 
over $50.  How did I afford these?  I wasn't 
living at home at the time.  In fact, I was 
already living on my own in an apartment.  I went 
to school in Boston so I was pretty 
much "encouraged" by the school to move out of 
the dorms after freshman year.  I could pay rent 
and buy cels because I had 2 part-time jobs, both 
in the computer industry.  
And then like most collectors, my tastes in cels 
got more expensive.  I started collecting Battle 
Angel and Miyazaki cels in addition to the series 
I had been collecting.  The secret to affording 
these while in college?  CREDIT CARDS.  They're 
evil...but I'm glad I had them because many of 
the cels I bought back then, I wouldn't be able 
to get now.  
I'm now out of college and had an awesome job 
until this past monday when our dot-com when dot-
bomb and laid off 45 of its 135 employees.  Until 
then, I was making pretty good money, and paying 
off my bills(i.e. cels) at a steady rate.  I'm in 
the process of interviews right now and am not 
really worried because the industry still has a 
shortage of what I do(Unix Sys. Admin for all you 
techies out there).  In the meantime, I'm going 
to be paring down what series I collect and 
concentrating on a select few.  another way to 
save money... ^_^     

~Sherry