Anime Art Resolutions

last modified: Saturday, January 09, 2010 (11:08:23 AM CST)

One of my News Years Resolutions with regard to anime art was to update the theme of my RS page. After 3 days work, that is now a reality.

The last theme, v3, based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was implemented in July 2007 and I still like it a lot but a change was due.
The current design is based on another of my favourite anime, Mezzo Forte.
This is in anticipation of a large update consisting of approx 60 setups/cels from the original Mezzo OVA. Artwork from the follow-up (Mezzo DSA) series will follow.

Other resolutions include buying less and selling more. A handful of series I particularly adore will receive most attention whilst I resist impulse purchases. It's going to be hard but it's quite possible!

Generally speaking I'm feeling positive, my Spidey-senses indicate that 2010 will be a good year for me- I could certainly do with one!
Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you find it cheerful and productive.

"Coming Soon" Rant

last modified: Thursday, July 17, 2008 (1:40:09 PM CST)

RubberSlug is set as my homepage so when I start up my browser every few days one of the first things I see is the list of new additions on others' websites.
Sanning over the banners I'm intrigued to see what has been added to each gallery but so often there are entries in a "Coming Soon" section.
What a waste of time that is. I hate seeing that slogan.

Some of these sites are guilty of adding new stuff every other day which bumps the other genuine sites off the front page. These are sites that have some proper artwork to display, art that's actually in their hands and I think they deserve more credit. In many cases, they've gone to the effort of scanning their image[s] and preparing a blurb about each piece but that's trounced by another RS user who places a tatty 'stock' image on a plain gallery page. Two minute's work tops.

Not only that, but when the official entry to the gallery is added under its series title, that equals two exposures on the front page and it's the same old shit we've already previewed.

I buy new pieces each week, sometimes 2-10 items, it's just as well I don't have a "Coming Soon" segment because everyone would soon grow to hate seeing my banner constantly on the RS homepage.

It's great to see and learn about new artwork in a gallery but it should be in a collector's posession before making the announcement.

3 Years old- merely a toddler

last modified: Sunday, October 28, 2007 (4:00:56 PM CST)

It occured to me that BBAnime Art is exactly 3 years old this weekend so it's time to reflect on what the site's achieved and where it'll progess in years to come.
The reason for this blog entry is for me to take stock of it all.

With 1000 items on display at this time it seems a lot, although I look at the artwork piled around my feet, balanced on tabletops and filed in storage folders and I'm reminded how I've barely dented the collection.
It's overwhelming and also sad because I think of all the art that's just sitting there neglected, without being represented in the gallery.

Yeah, I keep telling myself that "I'll get round to scanning [such and such]" but it's not feasible to maintain a high level of enthusiasm to the scanning process and to dedicate the time to do so. I'm not depressed about that, I'm pleased that I have other interests and won't make excuses since I stick by my ethos of making sure that every item displyed here is done to a high standard. That's something I'll always do for my own piece of mind because one has to see art in its best state to really appreciate it.

As this site matures, the artwork that gets posted over the years will be worth the wait. In 2010 visitors may shriek "I remember that old series" when I finally get round to displaying Otogi Zoushi, Bible Black or any other contemporary series that I collected at the time of release *LOL*
In one respect I'm glad that the new anime won't have much production artwork so that's less to collect; gives me time to catch up!

This week has been a busy cel week. Received SMJ and Mandarake packages [inc BWA items] and have a Rinkya one on the way. Also scanned the last of my Mezzo Forte cels- a dozen new images, which'll be displayed this coming week.

*Hmmm* I wonder what the theme of the site will be in another 3 years? Perhaps I ought to get planning now! *heh*

Fan Cel project gets into gear

last modified: Sunday, September 09, 2007 (3:21:43 PM CST)

This week I was excited to receive an email from an artist who hadn't been in touch for a long time.

A year ago I messaged her regarding ideas for a fan cel commission I had been planning and nothing came of it. I was informed she'd moved on from this interest and was busy with other things; that's fair enough but left me a little disappointed.
Another artist was keen to help out but I didn't feel she had quite the skill level I was looking for so the project went on hold.

Out of the blue my first choice artist contacted me "out of guilt" and said she could work on my COMMISSION [she thought there was one cel to paint] inbetween her busy work life. After chatting she agreed to do both cels and I'm really looking forward to it! ^__^

Both should be completed within 6 weeks and all I care to say at this stage is that one will be from Ninja Scroll and the other is an Angel Blade hanken-type image.
She'd like to feature the Ninja Scroll cel in her tutorial so it'll get some extra online coverage in the coming months.

This is a great opportunity to have some art from scenes which I could never hope to obtain directly from the original anime. Plus, I get to direct how they turn out with a little personalisation thrown in ;)
The cels will appear on this webpage when they're done.

50,000 Thankyous & Redesign

last modified: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 (2:24:07 PM CST)

This week I'm making a return to the world of anime art which means that I'll be scanning and displaying more pieces from the 'achives' on a regular basis.

One of the initial series to get star treatment is The Guyver, by request of Chris and David who have been nagging me for a couple of years to get that stuff online! It's coming, fellas ^__^
Updating those may take some time, I think I've got about 80 cels and a similar number of genga from the newer [2005] TV OVA. Are you sure you want to see 'em?

To celebrate 50,000 visits [thanks everyone!], I'm revamping the site with a new theme and design. I completed it just 10 mins ago and to give you a clue, it's based on a series I have a LOT of artwork from...
I shall unveil it on Sunday 1st July.

Along with this update will be a few signed books and other cels I've been itching to upload.

Let's start this summer with some fireworks! :D

It's not that I don't care...

last modified: Thursday, May 10, 2007 (11:40:27 AM CST)

As you will have noticed over the last 6 months, my pressence in the cel community has been lacking. I've not updated the site and visits to the forums have been sporadic to say the least.

This is due to other interests and things going on in my life, which I'm sure many of you can relate to. I'm now spending more time researching the music I love and updating my MP3 player with the tunes I buy and the new car purchase 6 weeks ago had diverted my attention away from animation artwork.
It was jsut last week that I finally got my car's sound system up 'n running after some faulty equipment and wrong sized speakers made this project lag. It's really satisfying to finally have the big sounds in my motor; I'm looking forward to hearing more of the CDs I love booming from the sub! ;)
Plus I've been pimping up the motor with chrome mouldings, facias and graphics which is superb fun- it'd be rude NOT to, *heh*

As a longer term 'distraction' my girlfriend and her daughters are my priority and I'm happy about that. It means that the art updates will continue to move at a slow pace even though the intake of new pieces shows no sign of deminishing!

RS is still my homepage so I check out the new additions with delight each day. Am I giving up cel collecting? OH NO! I just find that scanning and adding new graphics takes a lot of energy, something I'm left with very little of at the end of each day, LOL.

I'm still pleased to converse with friends and keep my hand in with the cel activities and goings on, so don't think that I'm trying to avoid anyone.

I wanted to post this message for those who have appreciated my collection over the years and to everyone who's already nudged me into showing the artwork I own. Don't fret, more WILL follow but I can't guarantee when ^__^

Cheers!

Customs men- LEAVE ME ALONE!

last modified: Monday, October 23, 2006 (3:33:45 PM CST)

Expected my nice big parcel from the Rinkya deputy last week, however it got stopped by Customs who thought it would be amusing to have to pay a large portion of the government's daily intake from my county.
The tax and import fee came to over GBP 175.00 [USD 330.00] so I wasn't best pleased. My other option was to have the parcel sent back to Japan then get Rinkya to mail it out a second time but with a new [dishonest] value placed on the Customs form. It was USD 183 to send before, so that still saves me a hefty chunk.

Fortunately, Rinkya said they'd help me out by faxing an ammended Customs declaration to the tax office in the hope I'd waive these fees. I supplied them with an appropriate email address and parcel details so fingers crossed as I await news!

Just thinking of those cels crammed in a damp warehouse with other parcels stacked on top gets me on edge.

It really frustrates me having to pay tax and other fees when obtaining artwork from abroard. These paintings don't really have a monetary value, it's more like we are paying for the artists time and skill- the material value is almost zero.
Should we be asked to pay these guys wages? It's crazy because these people don't even see the money we pay it all goes to the government who act like a corrupt mob boss taking their cut of somebody elses deal and they get away with it simply because the individual is weak and helpless.
It's not like movies and games where you're paying for the licence holder's copyright, so art doesn't have the kind of base value a DVD or CD does.

In a distorted way, this is how I see it; and I am pretty twisted :P

Whatever happens, when I finally get this package, I don't know where to store all the artwork. With 6 piles surrounding me right now, I'm running out of space. Still, I can always make room for art!! *heh*

At least I updated with 3 cels today- Street Fighter Alpha and the original VHD. In time for Halloween.

6 Month Update- taking stock

last modified: Monday, October 02, 2006 (9:56:41 AM CST)

Well, well... seems as though I don't have much to say since my last blog was 6 months ago!
My aim is to keep this weblog for anime art info only but I've been lagging *lazy*, I've even got a MySpace page and even LiveJournal page for other things and don't update those much *lazy again*.

The Myspace page is for general and Music-related posts and I only joined up with LiveJournal to be part of a Cyber City OEDO community ^__^ In all this time I thought I was the only OEDO fan! j/k
It'll be good to chat with other fans who enjoy this 3-part OVA too.

It seems a little conceited writing inane "me me me" posts because I don't like to dwell on things, but rush through and don't stop to take account of what happened.
In the case of cels, I still look through YJ every day and Mandrake every few days so I suppose I do have enough ideas and themes to write about.

My fear is that since this is a public blog, I'll come across as a freakish otaku and when I say "I purchased this, and won this etc" it looks like I'm bragging and being arrogant.

I want to make it clear that I'm not like that, but will nonetheless try to maintain a list of artwork I've bought for my own reference. This could be important since most of it won't be scanned and displayed for years, if at all!!

Thanks to the folks who gave me feedback in the reent Open House sessions; the vast majority said I should write more blogs. I'll endevour to write here more often.

So, here's the skinny on the last 6 months:
1 Viper hanken still to pay for; Some Ninja Scroll cels on the way form Japan; Anime World Star have been sending me packages every month- this week's is a huge batch of G-Taste + Ikenie cels; Sold my Berserk prints; keep being hassled to post my Guyver artwork; running out of space to store artwork! [those sketch Cuts take too much room]

The last 2 weeks have been CRAZY. I'm receiving my Rinkya and SMJ packages, have 3 more YJ packages on the way and received my Mandarake package today by EMS. That's a quick service- took 2 days to arrive. This includes a Ninja Scroll cel of Jubei, Virus Buster serge settei, ProjectARMS OP Storyboard [colour copy].

Any tips on keeping on top of this influx of art? Preferably methods which require minimum effort ;)
I've got cels coming out of my ears, they're in literally 8 places within this room and it's looking untidy. I don't like mess :(

Err on the Side of Action

last modified: Saturday, March 11, 2006 (4:09:54 PM CST)

New cels are slowly getting added to the gallery. Over the last fortnight there's been Cyber City, Bastard!!, Street Fighter Alpha, Jungle De Ikou and Kite.
I'll finish up the Jungle De Ikou ones [x9] then will have a go at either Guyver, Dangaioh, Septum Charm or Obscene Beast Teacher.

It's too overwhelming to concentrate on the other series I haven't even begun scanning/organising yet. Stuff like Otogi Zoushi, Samurai Champloo, Akira, Fist of the North Star. They can sit in Cel Books/storage for a while longer, *heh*.

I'm keeping back a lot of my settei but there's a nice VHD Bloodlust copy storyboard of the Opening which is screaming for attention. That movie will need its own settei section.

Next month I hope to make a shipping request on my items held with a deputy. It's been about 5 months since my last shipment so it's built up to over 70 lots now.
Fortunately I'm getting a GB£400 [US$650] bonus from work at the end of April so after tax/national insurance deductions I may see £300 of that. It'll cover shipping costs from the deputy to me. I'm guessing that shipping will be US$250-300 so that's most of the 'bonus' gone...

In other good news I'll soon be working full-time, which has been 4 years in the making. My current contract hours are 32 a week and I'm usually working 10-30 hours overtime a week to pay for artwork etc.
This week I clocked up 20 hours overtime but working 6 days a week gets a little disheartening.

It's 21:30 now on a Saturday night and I'd usually be out socialising and having a couple of drinks, but I have no cash and feel tired.
I'm in front of the computer writing this nonsense instead... LOL

Having this time away from the usual routine is not bad; I rewatched the anime "AD Police" which was brought to my attention on a forum thread today.
It's a great little 'old-skool' series of 3 short stories based on the Bubblegum Crisis themes and I forgot that the American cast in this are the same as in my fave series- Cyber City OEDO 808!! I class that anime as the best English dub of all time.

Time is precious. Rather than talking about what I'll do, I'll just go ahead and do it. Mustn't waste the weekend! :)

On a brief philosophical note [I do a lot of thinking], one should go ahead and participate in a lot of things and interact with a lot of people.

Err on the side of 'action'.

It'll make you a better person on a whole number of levels.
You regret the things you don't do, rather than the things you do do.

25,000 Hits celebrations!

last modified: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 (6:03:48 PM CST)

Big thankyous to everyone who has visited BB Anime Art since it's formation in October 2004. You've contributed to the 25,000 visits ^__^

A milestone like that requires some major updates so I included a VHD OVA cel, some bouncing boobies [Wordsworth] and I'm looking for some appropriate drink-related images ;)
I think I'll follow up with some of the DANGAIOH settei as a few people are keen to see them.

Even though I tend to collect many series that the majority of collectors here on RS don't, it's nice to know that people stop by to visit and I appreciate that. Thanks for your support.

At this rate I should begin preparation for the 50k celebrations! :P

Incoming! The Jan '06 BWA goodies

last modified: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 (3:39:52 PM CST)

They arrived, the Mandarake batch that I have been excited about for a while ^__^

The first thing I wanted to look at was the Memories cel setup, it's looks cool, very nice. Mandy have taken good of it by placing an acetate sheet behind and on top of the cel and a cel bag cutout has been placed between each of the 2 layers to stop any sticking and scratching.
The backgorund appears almost photorealistic and is a deep/purple red.
You'll have to wait another day till I have the chance to scan it then see for yourself ;)

The OP cels I got from Hakkenden and Dangaioh are 'as expected' but the daddy was the batch of Dangaioh settei. They are drawn on 14.5" x 10" sheets which is bigger than I imagined they would be.
I counted 71 original pencil/pen sheets and there are photocopies of most images too.

The drawings are of enemy mecha, weaponary, cockpits, and backgrounds so there are no major characters- this would have pushed the bidding price up to over 200,000y so I'm happy with these.

Just looking at the drawings, it's easy to tell that a professional artist has done them, even with some of the rough sketches. The simple squiggles they put onto paper look dynamic and the proportions are appealing and look elegant.

The finalised mecha designs shown in 1/4 and 3/4 rotation views are amazing- like hanken images; I was shaking with excitiment knowing that they were all hand drawn by Koichi Ohata/Shoji Kawamori/Yasushi Ishizu and perhaps [my anime idol] Masami Obari!

It's difficult to tell exactly who drew them because none are siged and I can't pick out the slight differences in style between the artists. I have a feeling it's mostly Ohata's work.

Yeah I know, everybody's saying SCAN THEM AND LET US SEE!!
All in good time ;) *Mwahh ha haaa*

BWA results- easing nicely into 2006

last modified: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 (12:07:39 PM CST)

It's time I came up with another cel-based musing and with the close of Mandarake's Big Web Auction of January 2006, what better place to start?

Before I considered registering I browsed the auctions... *meh* "there's nothing I 'really' want", but there were some nice OP cels from The Hakkenden (which I had been outbid on through YJ a few months back), some Dangaioh OP cels and settei and 3 nice setup's from Katsuhiro Otomo's MEMORIES.

My plan was to keep an eye on these, if the value of any of these exceeded my limits, I'd happily leave them be.
First up was one Hakkenden cel with only 1 bid at 1,000yen *Oww* I couldn't let it go for that! I quickly signed up and placed my bid- winning the item for less than I originally bid for it on YJ!

At the same time a Dangaioh OP of Rol Kran was due to finish, I got my bids in and after some counter bidding, won it for a fair price.
A biggie was coming up, a Dangaioh settei set of ORIGINAL drawings, to think that some of these would have been drawn by Masami Oburi himself was quite exciting. I knew they'd be competition since I've been monitoring every Dangaioh cel auction on YJ for over a year and know what the bidding can be like. Having seen an OP cel sell on YJ for 83k last month made me think I was in for no chance with these drawings, but I'd keep an eye out and try all the same.

Got my first bid in, 12,000y, one to 'test the waters' and was soon outbid. 16,500y and I was outbid again with 30mins left till the close. I thought I was out of luck, this was going to go to someone with deep pockets and that wasn't going to be me!
My last bid of 21,000y was placed with 15mins to spare and I left it at that, my limit- I was the current highest bidder.

Now, I wouldn't say that I cheated, but I feel the other bidders were cheated because the Mandy servers went down for 20mins and no-one could refresh the pages or bid.
That was to go in my favour because I eneded up winning the set for under 19k!!

After this I won another Hakkenden OP cel so I was on a roll :)
The next one that took my fancy was the setup from Memories, it had an effects layer[s] as well and looked great, one of the cels which summed up a lot from this segment of the anime.
My bid was placed 24 hours before the auction closed and I won it for 500y under my maximum, the cel gods are being good to me and I appreciate it.

I only wished they could have smiled on Ms Poe the other day when she bid on a Memories cel setup too. She missed out by a whisker, but that leaves more cash for exciting opportunities that are still to come!
Throughout these auctions it's been fun chatting to online friends about the cels and finding out what they've been bidding on.
When everyone bids on different things, it's good to compare that with my own collection and buying habits. I don't believe I'm that crazy at all :P

I have tons more cel news to add but this will do for now- I'll save them for another time ;)

BWA Haul & Backing off

last modified: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 (2:51:30 PM CST)

More remarks on this month's cel activities- it's been a rollacoaster!

Mid October, Mandarake's BWA came around and there were several things I liked [as mentioned in the last blurb]. I won 3 items- a set of 20 Otogi Zoushi drawings & backgrounds, two cuts from the hentai series Kisaku and a Wild Cardz cel, now on disply in the gallery.
This last one was a real oddball that came out of nowhere, I simply liked the image and don't know the character or series. It's 'low' price was quite atttractive too and I'm glad I went for it.

That's the thing with Mandarake auctions, you never entirely know what you'll get, especially if it's a group lot but I'm often delighted. When I bid on auctions of this kind, it's best to be a little pessimistic/realistic on what you might receive so there are no disappointments if you get a number of undesirable gengas.
To date, I've been very pleased so I cant complain!

When I won the Kisaku set, I thought to myself, "I've spent too much on just 2 genga sets, it doesn't even feature my fave character(s), I've wasted my money, wish I was outbid..." etc.
HOWEVER the set that arrived was beautiful because it was done on oversized paper- not the regular TV-sized sheets. All the sheets are about 15" x 12" which is massive for 'typical' anime shots.

When I browsed through the OZ set I was plesantly surprised too- there are several FANTASTIC images including a couple of vertical pans I fell in love with from the auction pictures.
Looking at them makes me realise it was money well spent.
You'll have to wait a while before these get scanned and displayed- maybe a year or so (!!) The reson being is that I've now ammassed a large collection of OZ art and it'll take me a while to organise it and rewatch the anime so I can describe the scenes/characters in my descriptions ;)

On a serious note- my Grandad, who's been living with me and my family for 13+ years, died recently. He was fairly old and suffered a number of health problems, he just didn't recover from an operation he had and his heart gave out.
As such, it had been a stressful fortnight and I immersed myself in my computer/cel hobbies more than usual to give me comfort. It had been a distraction to the grief my parents were suffering and I dodn't want to be victim to it.

The bad side to that was spending too much money so this week I've decided to knock all YJ, Ebay and Mandarake auctions on the head till I recover financially.
I've 'survived' 2 full days without bidding on ANYTHING and that's quite impressive for someone who trawls the sites for hours every day.
If I last more than a week I'll be smiling and will use my time to sell more than I buy, and to scan more artwork instead.

When you have a break from things, you can really appreciate what you've got.

Thanks to Marie (Fetish4Minx) for sending a batch of JoJo's Adventure OP setups- that really cheered me up!
Perhpas I should start reciprocating the gratitude by scanning my KITE cels/dougas next week? I know she (among others) is interested to see what I've got...

Welcoming Doom

last modified: Friday, October 14, 2005 (3:32:52 PM CST)

For the last three years I've looked at Mandarake's Big Auction but never really saw aything I liked. It was all series I don't collect except one of two items.
This is actually a good thing because I'd prefer items from their regular auctions where the bidders don't seem as 'pumped up' to spend big!

This year I scour the entire listings, well about 1500 of them out of 1700+ and I've seen SOME I'd like to get my mits on- Ninja Scroll cel of Kagero in the bamboo forest, a Gowkaizer cel, a few Samurai Champloo and Otogi Zoushi genga/BG sets, Isaku and Kisaku genga sets...
Most people are probably reading this and thinking "Meh, don't know what they are, don't collect them" which is GREAT news for me, now if EVERYONE can just act the same way I'll be laughing *HA HA HA!*
I've already done a deal with one friend over the Gowkaizer cel, I promised not to bid evn though she's such a beauty. That's one down.
Thing is, I officially registered today so I HAVE to bid on stuff regardless of the prices. It's that unwritten rule, that mental reaction that cries "you've paid upfront and come this far, there's no backing down now, you have to bid and win SOMETHING!" heh

Time will tell. If prices go too high, I can calmly sit back and appreciate the beautiful things I acquired through YJ- and paid a LOT less for. That would be my advice for anyone going into these auctions: loosing any of these items isn't the end of the world. [Unless it's a hanken, or major wishlist] :P

Upping the Ante & its Effects

last modified: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 (1:20:31 PM CST)

It begins with mere admiration for the artwork, you might acquire a few freebies then buy cheap cels. From here the next stage is to purchase more expensive cels, high-end artwork then you find yourself embracing Hankens and original anime art- where will it end? Taking over my own Studio? Now there's a thought... ;)

This is the dizzying situation I've found myself in about now and wonder where to go from here. I don't NEED to buy more, I just have the compulsion to, which is quite frightening.
Weird thing is that I can drink alcohol or smoke tobacco and I don't feel an addiction, I can take it or leave it. Maybe it has no effect because I'm SO into my other hobbies as if they're absorbing all my energies and need for fulfillment.

Notice I said 'hobbies', it's not just cel collecting that I've devoted myelf to but Music and Film also.
In Music, I learnt to play an instrument, bought 1000+ CDs in recent years which I listen to on rotation every day and bought tons of vinyl too as I [used to] DJ in a local club. I still make my own music compilations and go to gigs/meet the bands/keep in touch with record label owners etc. To a similar degree I also wonder "where can I go from here?"

As far as Film goes; I've bought and watched thousands of them, done a Video degree, worked in a few production companies, made my own anime music vids (cleverly combining all three obsessions, heh). Again- "where can I take it from here?"

Heh, don't fret- this ISN'T a 'cry for help', it's just an observation and something I'm steadily trying to work myself out of.

From time to time, I view my passion for these persuits as a bad thing. Bad because it drains my time and money.

Conversely, at the end of the day, as long as I remain a friendly, sincere & honest person, it doesn't matter WHAT I do. My personality hasn't changed for the worse, it's been positive in fact- mostly due to the socialising I do and friends I've made, so I believe THAT'S the most important thing in life.

Hmmm, this rant has become a bit deeper than I anticipated, LOL! [Stop thinking out loud Krafty and get back to the cel scanning] "OK brain".

A Welcome Victory

last modified: Sunday, July 10, 2005 (10:55:40 AM CST)

*Hee Hee* I love a happy ending, especially when it means I get anime artwork :P

2 weeks ago I saw a YJ auction for a batch of Hokuto No Ken/Fist of the North Star New OVA series gengas (both copies and originals). The auction was for a fat wad of 300 drawings and I was really excitied because this series had character designs by my fave artist- Junichi Hayama who worked on JoJo's Adenture.

Now, at the time, I saw the auction end was 5 days away. That's what I THOUGHT but it actually said 5 HOURS! I consequently missed the auction, it went for a mere 10,000y and I was kicking myself all week for making such a boob.

To my surprise the auction was relisted a week later as the winning bidder did not go through with the transaction. It begun at the same 5,000y value so I thought I'd be in with a chance!!

Placing my first 7,000y bid a few hours before the end (didn't want to miss out in case we had a power cut or something equally devastating) I was in the lead until the last minutes.
In comes another bidder with a 7,000y bid! Owww, the clock jumps up to 10mins before closing again.
Keep waiting. Keep monitoring...

I'm prepared to bid up to 21,000y on this lot but who knows who else is watching?!

Down to the last minute and it suddenly closes with me as the winner on my bid of 7,000y, less than I saw it sell for last time too- what a result! :D

Perhps the moral of this story is- "good things come to those who wait"; or "you'll get what's coming to you". I must have good karma today ;)

Stay lucky ~Krafty

Getting the Upper Hand

last modified: Sunday, April 03, 2005 (7:45:43 AM CST)

Well well, first Weblog entry so here goes!...

Felt compelled to make a note of a recent joyous occasion- a YJ win on some Mezzo Forte DSA artwork. Hope you enjoy the story; I think I'll look back on this occassionally and have a chuckle, heh.

Thanks to Startyde (Jon), we both went 50/50 on an auction lot of 35 layouts and Backgrounds and won but it was very tense and we were up against our Nemesis of several years, native YJ MEzzo cel fanatic- Ziggystardust. Ziggy has been outbidding Jon and myself consistantly over the years and we always dread his pressence on the auction we want to win. It's annoying because he has very deep pockets and when he wins the art, it seems to be hidden from the world in his personal collection- he doesn't have a gallery like us to display his goodies.

Ok, we had a full 6 days of notice about this auction, friends had emailed me about it and I happened to see it on the day too during a regular YJ browsing session. It seemed we had support *thankyou guys* but the action would't hot up until the last 15mins of the auction- a whole 6 days away.
Jon left me in charge of the bidding duties due to the time zone differene which made sense; it closed at 14:00 here in the UK whereas it was still 06:00 over in the US where Jon was. We agreed to set our max bid at 101,000y so we'd see how it goes. "This lot could be our making" said Jon, we both knew the stakes and quality of the collection, time to keep our fingers crossed.

Someone out their 1st bid in with 1 day to go- hmmm so there's some interest in the item but this could be some 'have-a-go-Joe' who's not really willing to spend a lot.
A couple more bids popped up in the last 30mins so I start getting anxious. No sign of Ziggy yet but he usually rears up in the final 10 mins.
We're in the last 15mins and I make my first bid, a conservative 12,000y to get the ball rolling. 3 mins later and up comes Ziggy outbidding me- "Ha, here you are Ziggy, knew you'd show your face!".
No messing around, there was 10 mins to go so I up the ante another 10,000y, knowing he'd follow suit; he did.
Playing tactically I upped it some more so he knew I was serious- approaching 60,000y for this lot now. The bids are mounting as Ziggy makes smaller increments trying to better me, only us two are fighting it out and the number of bids has rocketed to 34.
We're outbid again, Ziggy has it but I can go higher and make a couple of small increments to make him believe I was running out of money THEN it's time to go in for the kill! The timer counts down to 3 mins again and we're back on top but Ziggy soon responds- can he go any higher, this is getting rediculous?
Time to pay my final hand, max bid of 101,000y. The bid is placed, I can only wait and pray Ziggy gies up. Heart's beating fast, my twitching hand is hovering over the mouse- take in some deep breaths. I know Ziggy's thinking about it but will he go further?
The counter is down to 4 mins again, I can't bid higher so I'm relying on him giving up. 3 mins and the price is set at just over 84,000y, we're still on top. 2 mins and Ziggy hasn't retaliated. 1 min to go and I'm refreshing the page to see if there's a late bid then...
ENDED.
We won. WE WON! YES, WE BEAT YOUR A$$ ZIGGY! WHOOO HOOO! HA!
Time to put in my favourite 'upbeat/happy' CD, (RIDGE's- A Countrydelic and Fuzzed Experience in a Columbian Supremo) and skip to track two 'No Way Near', crank it up and dance round the room pointing at the monitor screaming "You Ain't No Way Near.."
Heh, heh, I sound really mad don't I?

Needless to say When I emailed Jon about our victory he was over the moon and it really made out Saturday. He made me laugh with the comment "It seems he f***s us good one on one, but combined, the allied powers come out on top...lol. It's like WWII all over again :)"

And that's the story on how I got the upper hand.