An OnlyFans star who owns a $5,000 Louis Vuitton handbag has revealed that her real obsession is something else entirely – a collection of around 50 anime figures worth more than $10,000.
Cami Chan, 28, has the figures displayed in glass cabinets and on shelves throughout her home, and says visitors have described the place as closer to an anime museum than a model’s house.
The creator, who has 500,000 Instagram followers at @camichanowo and says she earns fifty-thousand a month on OnlyFans, owns pricey Chanel jewellery alongside the Louis Vuitton bag. But she insists none of it competes with the shelves.
“People expect my house to be full of designer shoes and handbags because of what I do for work,” Cami, from Chicago, US, said.
“Instead, it looks like an anime collector lives here – because one does.
“The first thing people usually do is stop and look around.
“Mostly, they can’t believe how many figures I have.”
A house that looks like an anime museum
Most of the collection comes from the hit franchises Genshin Impact and Naruto, with individual figures costing hundreds of dollars.
One of her most prized pieces is a Ningguang figure worth around $600 (£450), alongside favourites including Eula, Mona, Yumemizuki, Sakura, Hinata and Temari.
“Some people think it’s a bit obsessive, but I love being surrounded by the characters I’ve grown up with,” she said.
“It’s definitely not a cheap hobby, but it makes me so much happier than buying designer clothes or handbags even though they’re rather niche.
“I’ve got display cabinets in different rooms of the house as well as shelves, so they’re pretty much everywhere.”
The scale of it is the part that tends to land with people. A single high-end figure can cost as much as a mid-range designer accessory, and collectors typically build up over years rather than in one spree – which is how a shelf becomes a room, and a room becomes a house.
Why she is in no rush to cash in
Although the collection has grown into a valuable investment worth well over $10,000, Cami says selling is not on her mind.
She said: “For now, I’m holding onto them.
“When I’m really old, maybe I’ll want to downsize and sell them, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
“Some of them have gone up massively in value since I bought them, but I don’t collect them to make money.
“Every figure reminds me of a game or anime that I love, so they’re worth more to me than whatever someone would pay.”
It is a distinction plenty of collectors will recognise. Scarcity in the anime figure market – limited runs, discontinued lines, licensing that lapses – means resale values can climb sharply, and that quietly turns a hobby into an asset whether the owner treats it as one or not.
The collection she lost as a child
Her love of collecting did not actually begin with anime figures.
Growing up, Cami was obsessed with Pokémon cards and spent years building her collection by trading with classmates and buying packs whenever she could.
But when her mum and stepdad split, her entire collection went missing.
While she still collects Pokémon and Naruto trading cards today, she admits she has never quite been able to replace what she lost.
Cami said: “Looking back, some of those cards would probably be worth a fortune now.
“Losing that collection definitely made me appreciate the things I own now even more.”
Figures before Lamborghinis
Cami hopes to upgrade her Toyota Prius to a Lexus one day, but says expensive cars are not her priority. Right now she is focused on maintaining the collection – even if it means other expensive items take second place.
She added: “I’d rather scratch my Louis Vuitton bag than one of my favourite figures.
“People assume I spend all my money on luxury brands because of my job, but honestly I’d be happier walking out of an anime store with a limited-edition figure.”
READ MORE: ‘I earn nearly £79,000 a month – so I bought a pedigree cat instead of a Lamborghini’
What it says about how creators actually spend
The assumption that a successful creator’s money goes straight into handbags and supercars is a durable one, and it is usually wrong in the same way assumptions about any well-paid job are wrong. What tends to happen instead is that people buy more of whatever they already cared about before the income arrived.
For creators whose audience is built around a specific subculture – cosplay, gaming, anime – there is also a practical overlap. The interest is the work and the work is the interest, and the line between a personal collection and a professional backdrop stops being meaningful.
Cami is blunt about which side of that line she prefers.
“If I’m honest, I much prefer chatting about anime and my collections than talking about sex.
“Collecting has always been part of who I am.
“OnlyFans just gave me the opportunity to build the collection I’d always dreamed about.”
As NudeNewz has reported before, creators working in cosplay and character work often find the fandom side of the job is what keeps them in it.
Pictures and video: Jam Press. Licensed editorial use only. Cami Chan is represented by NudePR.
