Many genga drawings of popular anime such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Pokemon, etc. will be listed

Heritage Auctions holds two specialized anime-art auctions every year. The most recent event was "The Art of Anime and Everything Cool...Volume V SignatureR Auction #7380", held in October 2024. It brought in bids from 3,779 participants for 2,282 items, ultimately achieving a total of about US$2.89 million (including Buyer's Premium, BP). Converted to Japanese yen, that figure approximates \456 million, a telling sign of the auction's remarkable success.

A Japan-Focused Anime Art Auction at Heritage Auctions

Riding on that momentum, Heritage Auctions announced "The Art of Anime - Volume VI: Celebrating 40 Years of Studio Ghibli SignatureR Auction #7401", scheduled for March 22-23, 2025. As implied by its title, this event will celebrate Studio Ghibli's 40th anniversary, and given that previous auctions have seen high-selling items like Dragon Ball Z artwork, it appears this next one will also heavily spotlight Japanese anime.

https://comics.ha.com/c/auction-home.zx?saleNo=7401

Although Heritage Auctions runs more than 50 different categories of auctions, the anime art department stands out for its distinctive fee structure. Bidding starts uniformly at US$1, with a 20% BP (minimum $29). Additionally, the seller pays a 15% consignment fee, deducted from the final hammer price.

From a bidder's perspective, even if an item sells for just one dollar, the minimum $29 Buyer's Premium, plus shipping and handling, might push the total payment close to \10,000 in Japanese currency. In practice, only items that people consider "worth at least about US$70" typically receive bids.

Meanwhile, from a seller's perspective, factoring in the 15% consignment fee and a $50 wire transfer fee (per payout) means that your items really need to fetch at least US$500 each, or else you risk selling at a loss.

Note that the bidding and listing fees are figures as of February 2025 and are subject to change in the future, so be sure to check the official website.

I'm Consigning 55 Items from My Own Keyframe Collection

With a dedicated "Japanese Anime focused auction" on the horizon, I did not want to pass up the opportunity. I attended an appraisal event at Heritage Auctions' Tokyo office and decided to consign 55 items (including 8 cels) from my personal stockpile of keyframes and cels.

One major reason for this decision is to demonstrate that selling anime keyframes need not be as difficult as some imagine. I have already published about three e-books on anime keyframe investment, detailing points like how to evaluate their worth and what to consider when purchasing. However, readers often ask whether "anyone can really profit from anime keyframe investment" or voice doubts such as "If I buy them, can I truly sell them afterward?"

Drawing on my experience investing in collectibles like antique coins, I strongly want to avoid a situation where "I bought a valuable asset, but there's no easy way to sell". With coin investments, both domestic and international auction systems are well-established, ensuring minimal hurdles when the time comes to offload them. So how about anime keyframes? Heritage Auctions, with its international reputation, regularly attracts a broad base of overseas fans?thus seeming like an ideal "exit strategy" for anime keyframes.

I actually have a second reason for consigning to Heritage Auctions: to highlight the variety of Japanese anime keyframes. As I mentioned in Chapter 1, "keyframe drawings" is an umbrella term that includes layouts, modified layouts, keyframes, and modified keyframes, each differing in role and style. But for many people, simply reading about them doesn't convey the nuances.

Therefore, I selected a range of both keyframes and cels to list, so that people can see these images in the online catalog. Heritage Auctions has expert staff who provide detailed descriptions for each item, and reading these will give a more tangible sense of what "keyframe drawings" really mean in the anime production process.

Western collectors still do not widely recognize the value of full cut sets, which include layouts and modified keyframes?materials of high documentary importance. At present, they sometimes get lumped together with random single keyframes. My hope is that continued consignments to overseas auctions will help spread awareness of these "complete cut" keyframes.

Moreover, I am consciously mixing in works from lesser-known series on a global scale. With a renowned international platform like Heritage Auctions, there is always a chance that unexpected bidding wars will break out for certain items. Of course, I will also list some major "blue-chip" titles likely to fetch high bids, but I do not want to focus solely on mainstream hits. My guiding principle is to show off the "diversity of Japanese anime" to a broader audience.