I haven't bought a cel in months... possibly even 
a year. It's been several years since I was 
*actively* collecting with my series. Part of it 
was because nothing I needed has come up on the 
market in that same length of time; lots of lower-
quality cels, and of the good ones that have come 
up, I either have sequence mates or better shots. 
So the other part of it is that nothing has come 
up that would fill a gap in my collection.

There are very few cels that would be bought as 
an investment, and anyone who has that kind of 
money will probably get a better return on it by 
investing it in a different way. :o) Rather, the 
worthwhileness of the hobby is mostly emotional 
attachment... I like this character, I like this 
series, I like this scene, I like this art in 
general. And once your love of whatever drew you 
to the cel in the first place has faded, 
something you would have given a kidney for 
before ends up being traded or sold away to 
someone who will have more appreciation for it. I 
think I'll keep my collection, as I know I'd take 
an enormous loss if I tried to sell it off. :o) 

It's still an exciting hobby, though. I still 
keep track of ebay and Yahoo!Japan on the off 
chance that something interesting will come up.

If I had to guess, I would have thought that the 
lack of cels would have led to a greater emphasis 
on fancels and fanart, but that doesn't seem to 
be the case. While some animation art collectors 
have migrated to collecting sketches, I think 
that there are fewer new people coming into the 
anime hobby who are aware that original animation 
art is available, let alone collectable. The 
population won't disappear, of course-- we'll get 
a little new blood-- but I think that as anime 
becomes more and more mainstream, there's less 
and less dedication to particular characters or 
series in general that would lead a person to pay 
$xxx for a piece of art. There are always 
exceptions, but in general, new anime fans seem 
to be more likely to migrate to the most current 
fad rather than cultivating a real dedication to 
a certain show.

So while the supply of new animation art may 
dwindle as well, I think that the competition is 
also dwindling at the same time. And all it takes 
is two people in a bidding war to keep the prices 
as high as they were five or ten years ago. And 
if you're one of them, then the excitement is 
certainly still there. :o)