Hi,
this is really beast-like of me to bring this up 
here, but out of pure frustration I just, have to.

How is it that people can spend so much money on 
so many cels??  I mean, I go to galleries and 
stuff and look around, and people have some 
amazing things that I would LOVE to have!  But, I 
have rent to pay, bills, car insurance, not to 
mention a pest of a disorder that has me in the 
doctor's office at least every two months.  Then 
there's the cons/trips I want to take, that I see 
most of these "gallery" owners going to as well?  

HOW DO YOU DO IT?  Do you live at home with your 
parents?  Do you not buy food?  Do you shop at 
Goodwill?  (Not that Im slamming GW or anything, 
they rock so dont get hairy on me)  

No, but seriously people?  I am a professional 
animator/artist, and there is nothing more in 
this life that I love than animation and art.  I 
used to own quite a bit of neat stuff, and I 
still own some cool things, but YEOW!  Im a HUGE 
Nuriko fan from FY, but I tell you what..I just 
assume make my OWN cels (and better at that) than 
spend roughly half of my rent on one painted 
picture of him at a half-side view!  Man, there 
were some things that I REALLY wanted on Ebay, 
and another girl who has some great ones that I 
want so bad I can hardly stand to pass them 
up....but really....I want them but LIFE will 
have otherwise...at least for moi.  What's sad is 
that I make damn good money too!  I work for a 
gaming company in Austin!  Im good at what I do, 
and yet I still cant afford all this stuff like 
most of you all can.  Please, tell me your 
secrets oh wise ones!  HOW DOTH THEE DO IT?

I have one Nuriko cel left, I paid somewhere 
around 280 bucks for it in college...and I would 
really like one or two more to have, but man 
folks, some of you I think just want to milk the 
fans out there for all you can get.  Some of 
these prices I've seen, REALLY overpriced and 
unfair.  One person doesnt even have prices up, 
THEY just "takes offers", like a secret 
auction...please, at least on Ebay us poor saps 
can see what we're up against.  And I cant even 
make an offer cause Im sure there's some *Otaku* 
out there who's offered three times that on it.  
Sad, really sad.

And yeah, you say, "Oh if you were a true fan 
you'd pay at any cost!"  Yeah yeah, I done heard 
it all.  Im a former otaku myself, but then real 
life came and bit me in the rear, and bills 
replaced cels and anime in my life.  So this 
might sound like a whining rage, but Im sure a 
lot of you can relate...at least, those of you 
who have families, jobs, things to pay for can.  
No offense to those of you who dont, and can 
somehow still afford you're salacious cel 
addictions..more power to ya..this is just me 
being rahter let down that I cant afford a single 
peice of decent artwork, from an ANIME of all 
things too!  I have some excellent Don Bluth cels 
with backgrounds that costed less than some of 
the cels of certain anime characters that I've 
seen!  

I dont know, Im done ranting now folks, flame me, 
agree with me, I dont really care.  One good 
thing has come from me not being able to afford 
these dam things though....its made my drive to 
create nice artwork somewhat ravenous..I 
figure, "Hey, if I cant buy it, I'll make 
something better!"  If I had the time and the 
physical reserves, I would make better cels than 
Studio Pierrot themselves...oh, and I could sell 
them to people for prices that everyone could 
afford :).  Have a nice day collectors!  
Hopefully tomorrow will be a nicer day for me, 
and I wont be so gripy anymore....sorry about 
this @_@~