Production Cels as an investment
Currently, investors are looking for a better rate of return on their investments so are looking at diversifying their portfolio by trading fine wines, truffles, jewellery and antiques. Another type of collectable and potential investment are original production cels from animated films.
People purchase this kind of work for nostalgic purposes as to whether own a part of animation art they watched as a kid or to display it as an artwork for their walls.
Production cels from animations are becoming rare as most studios prefer digital media as it's quicker and cost effective. The process of production cels after a film was completed was that they were even given away on video sets or sold indvidually once the animation process was completed. The more popular shows and movies demanded higher prices for the cels, with some selling for thousands of dollars.
Animation cels can be broken down into the following groups - limited editions, sericels and production cels. Production cels usually fetch the most as they are hand-painted and "under the camera" cels, which are the most collectable.
The prices of cels depend upon the "value" of the animated film by it's age, animation studio and quality. Some unique cels have fetched record prices at art auctions, such as a group shot of the characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit which sold for $50,600 at Sotheby's in 1989. Other cels which have high potential values are old Disney films, the one using production cels was The Little Mermaid and The Simpsons, which now only use digital media.
Keep an eye on places like Ebay and Yahoo auctions as well as your local animation store.
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