Gosh, if I remember correctly, my very first cel 
was purchased waaaaaay back.....oh....about a 
month ago.

^_^

I've always been a big animation fan, but there 
was NO WAY I was going to shell out $500  for 
mediocre US animation cels.  Thank-you, no.

I forget exactly how I stumbled across the whole 
anime cel culture, but I think it was via an Ebay 
search for a Tenchi toy, then on to a dealer's 
site, then here.  :-)   I wasn't sure if I would 
be able to care for my cels properly, so I ordered 
some inexpensive examples from Anime Chaos.

Every cel---even the cheapest among 
them---captivated me.  I was SO PLEASANTLY 
surprised!  One cel in particular of Sakuya from 
Shin Tenchi just took my breath away it was so 
beautiful.  No scan does it justice.  (A small pic 
is located in the link above.)

THAT cel was the first one I saw when I opened the 
package, so technically it was my very first cel. 
 My collection is still very small, so it's no 
surprise that the Sakuya cel is still my fave.  
But I have a feeling it will remain so even as my 
madness...I mean "collection"....grows.

JP