Hmm, I hope that many are not viewing this hobby 
as an investment. Yes, it is nice that you see a 
cel that you bought for $50 going for multiple 
that amount on eBay or on dealer sites, but cels 
are collectibles. As anyone who's followed the 
trading card/comics field knows, collectibles are 
only viable as long as there are people who will 
continue buying. Sure, you can usually get back 
what you've paid for a cel, but be realistic as 
to what someone else would pay for it. It doesn't 
matter what you or I or some price guide thinks 
an item is worth, it's only worth as much as 
someone who's willing to pay for it. Hobbies 
should be fun and any money spent on a hobby 
should be money that are truly disposable, not 
money that is needed elsewhere.

I'm somewhat disturbed by some posts above by 
people in college who are using credit to finance 
their hobby. Now, there's nothing wrong with 
that, and I'm sure that they're all responsible 
people and can handle their finances better than 
I did at their age, but I'm old-fashioned in that 
I just don't agree with borrowing to buy non-
essential items (no, no matter what you think, 
you can live without cels :-)). Going from my own 
experiences and that of others, college students 
usually graduate with some sort of student loans 
and when you add in the burden of credit card 
balances, unless you got a fantastic paying job 
right out of school, that's a pretty heavy burden 
to carry.