i don't have quite as large a problem... i 'only' 
have 5 small books and 2 large books... but i had 
the same thing where i couldn't find any cels 
without looking through most of the books.

my answer to the problem was a massive cel 
organization and lebeling.

i first divided the cels by series, then, within 
the series, i organized the cels by how unlikely 
i am ever to let go of it. then i started with 
the series i had the most of and started filling 
up a cel book with it, 'most unlikely to ever let 
go of' cels first... sort of thinking that if i 
do it that way, i won't have to move cels around 
to fill in empty spaces later on...

i did that with all the big series i collect, and 
when i ran out of empty books, i started from the 
back from the cel book with the fewest cels for 
the remaining series. then i just labeled the 
celbooks with the series inside.... it just kinda 
turned out that i have no more than two series in 
a book (wel.. except for in the large books.. but 
that's unavoidable..)

.. uh.. that turned out to be a lot more writing 
than i thought it would be... i don't know if 
that helps at all... okie... i'm gonna stop 
rambling now. hope you somehow solve the problem 
with the mess...