::frown:: Ok, I think I'm about to have a very 
unpopular position on this subject...but there 
you go. ::shrug::

There's a finite amount of cels for any given 
sequence, character, whatever. There's also a 
finite amount of money in most of our 
pockets. ::grin:: I'm not a fan artist and, as 
yet, I don't own any fan cels. I have several 
that I'd like to have made in future, however, 
again on the basis that a)the chance of finding 
them is slim to none b)I don't necessarily have 
the money to acquire them if I did. I don't see a 
thing wrong with that. Not a thing. Do you know 
why?

No matter what, no matter how good it is, that 
fan cel is never going to be the real thing. It 
wasn't designed by a master animator, painted and 
carefully detailed by one of his colleagues. It 
didn't pass under the camera or become part of an 
anime that I came to love. That, to me, is what 
justifies the value of a true production cel. 
That you are holding a piece of the show, the 
closest thing to physically touching a beloved 
character, in your hands. No one can take that 
away from you, but the money you spent on it is 
your business, and not something that you have 
the right to harass other collectors with.

Now don't get me wrong, I have a -huge- problem 
with people marking reproductions as real cels 
and attempting to swindle someone that way. 
However, as long as a fan cel is clearly marked 
as such, what's the big deal?

You mentioned wanting someone to ask your 
permission. How are they supposed to know you own 
that cel? Are you suggesting that someone needs 
to search high and low for the owner of a 
particular shot before making a fan cel of it? 
More than likely, the fan cel was made from a 
screenshot, not as a copy of your cel. 

Let's look at it another way. If I really love 
the Mona Lisa and want to have it in my own home, 
am I going to go out and buy the real thing? No. 
Raising the sum to purchase it would be nigh 
impossible, not to mention that the current 
owners are really fond of it and probably 
wouldn't entertain my offer in the first place. 
Hmm, sounds a bit like cel collecting. So what I 
do is shop around and find a really nice print of 
it, I could even find a reproduction of it done 
with paint on canvas. Voila, the Louvre is happy, 
I'm happy. I know, and so does everyone else that 
sees it, that it's not the real Mona Lisa. Is the 
Louvre upset that I have the Mona Lisa in my 
living room? Probably not. Did I call them up and 
ask permission before I bought it? No. Theirs is 
the real thing, mine is not. End of story.

Ultimately I think we have to stop and examine 
our reason for collecting cels. Do you collect 
them because you love them? Is it important to 
you to have a physical piece of a series or 
character you adore? Or are you buying them 
simply to prevent anyone else from having that 
particular scene or shot?

Just my 2 yen.

--Jennifer