For one thing, first impressions count a lot.
What I mean is that cel collectors (and fans in
general) become fans of the originating series,
whether it is a TV series or an OVA. For Fushigi
Yuugi, the TV series is what most people fell in
love in with first and thus cels from that hold
the most value for them. On the other hand, the
Lodoss OVA is what sparked the popularity of that
title, and therefore cels from that is much more
highly sought.
Sequels or spin-off series are therefore less
highly sought, in general.
Second, a big consideration is availability, or
to put it more succintly: how rare are the cels?
OVA cels tend to be shorter and thus present
fewer available cels than their TV counter-
parts. This is one reason why Rurouni Kenshin
OVA cels are just as valuable as Rurouni Kenshin
TV cels.
Age is also a major factor to the second issue.
The older a series is, the more rarer and
valuable the cels tend to be. For instance,
Fushigi Yuugi TV and Lodoss OVA cels are older
and much more rarer than their subsequent counter-
parts.
Third, the quality of the animation could be one
of the deciding factors. In general, a movie or
OVA series enjoy a bigger budget per
episode/project than a TV series, and therefore
the level of quality tends to be higher. Thus,
cels from a movie or OVA series could be
considered more valuable. One of the exceptions
to this trend is Fushigi Yuugi, where the TV
animation is equal or often times even better
compared to the OVA series.
One thing cel collectors always take into
account, though, is the quality of the individual
cel itself and also it's importance (scene-wise
or character-wise) to the anime. Most of the
time, this will overshadow the three
considerations I mentioned above. |