I'm geekier than Andrea

Not sure why this is something I'm proud of, but there it is.  (What?  I'm the only one around here that took a class in animated filmmaking in 5th grade?)

Anyway, Andrea asks (regarding the entry below) "What is a cel anyway?" and I figured I should explain.  Besides, it gives me a chance to poke around on the internet and see if the price they have for the cel in question is in line with other prices.

The simple answer is:  a cel is one of them see-through things they painted animation art on (before they started doing it all by computer).  You take a drawing of your characters, copy it on a clear sheet, then paint the little bugger.  That's a cel.  Then you can put your cel on top of your background, snap a picture and -- presto -- frame of animation film.

The complex answer is much more complicated than that -- now that the studios have realized there's a market for cels, they create cels to sell, rather than selling only actual production cels.  So you can get "sericels" or "limited edition hand-painted cels" and shit like that.  I found a fairly good description of both the animation process and the creation of different kinds of cels here.

As for pricing -- well, since it's a collectibles market, I think the conclusion here is "damn if I know."  Obviously, original production cels sell for more than limited editions, but beyond that, it's anybody's guess.  I know that if you've got a cel that comes with background (rather than the character just sitting there on a clear cel), that's worth oodles more, and I s'pose there's all sorts of other factors that go into it having to do with whether the character is main or supporting, full view or head view, action or just sitting there, etc. 

The price for the cel that I'm drooling over actually seems quite reasonable in comparison with other cels of its type -- but this is likely because it is background free and the characters aren't in full color.

Thanks for all the advice -- I (gasp) put in the minimum bid.  Now I'll just have to wait to see if I get outbid -- and hope that if I do get outbid, it isn't by someone who goes all the way to the "buy it now" price.