I'm commenting from outside of the situation, 
mind you. Fushigi Yuugi was one of the first 
anime that I truly loved, but I haven't yet felt 
compelled to dive into collecting cels from it. I 
suppose it's one of those 'I can only afford one 
expensive series at a time' and Gundam Wing is 
it. ^_^

Anyway, I think the reason that people are so 
taken aback is that Fushigi Yuugi has been out 
and the cels have been available since 1995. It's 
also been commercially available in the US for 
several years. We're also talking about a series 
that spans 52 episodes and two OAVs, so there are 
quite a few cels out there in comparison to other 
anime. Yet the cels have suddenly skyrocketed 
over the past few months. 

I think it's reasonable to wonder why and even to 
be a bit frazzled about it. What it essentially 
means is that it's becoming a series for which 
the casual collector has little to no chance of 
acquiring a cel of a favorite character because 
the prices are anything but casual. I'm not 
railing mind you, merely making a statement.  

Sure, the art is gorgeous, but the prices are 
still insane. ^_^

--Jennifer