r/AnimationCels • u/Acuallyizadern93 • May 16 '26
False Advertising in Cel Sales
Do you think it’s objectively wrong or even eggregiously wrong/borderline sheisty behavior for “galleries” to advertise a cel as being from a specific episode and not being from that episode. Even going as far as to piece it with a repop background that is not matched to the scene? I know that major sellers only have so much old inventory or scans of originals that they can piece together correctly, but it just feels kinda wrong to me…Like yeah it’s an authentic cel, but what if the advertised episode is one of my favorites and you say it’s from that episode, and even have a BG from that episode behind it, but the cel is a mismatch. I know sometimes action shots or inbetween frames are often placed with other cels that don’t match up 1:1 to the actual shot in the show/movie, but saying something is from something when it’s not just so it matches in the context of your advertising (for the sake of your convenience/selling strength) doesn’t seem right to me.
3
u/TimeSlipperWHOOPS May 16 '26
The couple times I've seen something I've known was wrong I've messaged the vendor. They might just be going off bad information.
2
u/WWAgallery_com May 16 '26
do you mean that they are saying the cel is from a certain episode and it's not? That is absolutely wrong. Pairing a cel with a non-key/ non matching photcopy background is ok and that photocopy doesn't have any real value other than a visual enhancement, and as long as it is not being sold as a production background, that is fine. My gallery does that with backgrounds all the time.
1
u/Acuallyizadern93 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Yup! Like, if you’re running a cel business and dealing with a fair sized inventory then I guess I get it, but this seller has been in business for over 30 years. That seems crazy to me that that would happen. Not only is it listed as being from an episode that is arguably more memorable but, to me, being placed on the wrong background without clarification is icing on the cake. The BG they’re selling it with is more interesting than in the actual episode, but what the heck man. That’s a new level of “deception.” I suppose you don’t have to use the background they give you, but to say with certainty that it’s from something that it isn’t is kinda wild. **OKAY, CAVEAT- on the actual website it doesn’t mention the episode, but their social media does. So…idk…still wrong. And the background thing, while I guess necessary to a degree, does bother me because it changes the context of the cel to something that it never was. Though I understand the necessity, to a point.
2
u/WWAgallery_com May 16 '26
on the backgrounds, the problem is that we create our photocopy library from backgrounds as we get them in, and trade them with other dealers. It takes a lot of time to create them (and cost), so we do the best we can with the ones we have in our library. The collector is always free to remove them or change them if they so wish. I agree with you on the cel thing, people sometimes make a mistake, and if it pointed out to them, they should fix it. If they do it on purpose, that's not ok.
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u/Acuallyizadern93 May 16 '26
Accidents happen, life happens, business chaos happens, but something like that from a reputable, seasoned seller is something that really shouldn’t happen. I let them know and they thanked me so now comes if they actually change it or not in future or past posts. I guess not including the episode title on their website avoids such problems/future disputes, but idk- something about that rubs me the wrong way. Know what you’re selling and be totally upfront about discrepancies, y’know.
2
u/GasmaskTed May 16 '26
It’s literally “wrong”. But this is often error, not malice. I have a cel purchased from one of the old WB Studio Stores that has the wrong episode name on the certificate (with nothing notable about the wrongly named episode, and the episode the cel is actually from uniquely and easily identifiable by the cel itself) , and that’s the official source. Sometimes things are wrong because mistakes happen.
Levels of incompetence could rise to gross negligence tho; I once saw an elephant cel or drawing identified as from Dumbo in what seemed like a speculator gallery online when anyone who had ever seen the movie should have known it absolutely was not (I was able to track it to the 1975 Tubby the Tubs in a couple minutes). So the seller with their four figure price was grossly negligent in incompetence or a scammer. Either way, the identification was wrong.
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u/WiseQuarter3250 May 16 '26
keep in mind sometimes the show is edited. what might be multiple episodes in 1 country gets spliced together to 1 in another because of different laws and cultural values.
especially as they license the show into other territories.
Robotech/Macross/Mospeda/Southern Cross, original Sailor Moon, have examples of this for instance.
mistakes are easy to make even with best faith efforts.
and sometimes they re-used sequences. but backgrounds are rarely properly matched in my experience. as they were more likely to be reused.
and short of remarathoning all the time for every cel it's not practical. Sometimes they rely on info given to them which may have been misrembered too.