For an image that small the price is a little too 
high. Well saying a little too high is putting it 
nicely.

The point is though, that no one can do anything 
about it. It's his cel. The question though, is 
whether anyone will come around and meet it. I 
doubt that if he had a lower opening, and there 
was an insane bidding war, that they would have 
even come close to what he wanted for it. Well, 
now he's stuck with it. He'll probably try again, 
but hopefully having learned something from the 
experience.  
If only things could always end up this neatly. 
It's almost like the plot of some horrible family 
sitcom, or something :). 

I've always suspected though that there's 
something insane about auctions. I've had it 
confirmed when I read an article on the 
contemporary art market. Take out the 
consideration about the artist's career, and 
maybe substitute it with a dealer's concern about 
selling all of the cels they have for a series, 
and a lot of their concerns are similar to ours. 
Worries about speculation, and people spending 
obscene amounts in auctions (sometimes 50X more), 
when similar pieces are avaliable in galleries 
for much lower.

There's something a gallery owner said that made 
sense. It was basically that the market is 
irrational, but that she had to base prices on 
something real. Is it rare? One's expenses. 
etc . . . People should keep this in mind when 
they set an opening bid. It's not too much to 
ask, is it? 

Bidder's are naturally irrational (competition, 
sentimentality, a need to throw some dough, itchy 
trigger fingers all play a part), but it's 
frightening if sellers began to immitate them. 

(I'm not completely sure that it's fair to ask 
sellers to sell something for less than they 
could -- but doesn't the idea of $700 Duo and 
$400 Quatre cels scare everyone?)   

O_o -- On a sad note, my friend lost the damn 
magazine with the article on the subway. She 
promised to get me a copy, but it turns out the 
thing is a weekly. :( If anyone's interested, the 
magazine was New York, Oct 2 edition -- which 
means it came out last week.