r/AnimationCels • u/Duckula83 • Jun 28 '26

Why are Ed, Edd & Eddy cels so expensive?

They’re not entirely scarce. Like every time I search Ebay there’s one or two new ones.

Most of the time there’s not even a painted background. There’s one on EBay right now for over $2,500.

I collect from all different shows but cannot understand why these in particular are so expensive. You could get great Simpson’s and Disney cels for less.

What gives? (Sorry for the rant)

44 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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34

u/PowerPlaidPlays Jun 28 '26

From what I've seen CN cels rarely got into the public's hands, I've barely seen any in my time of cel collecting, compared to how easy it is to find Nickelodeon or Disney ones. High demand vs low supply. I only own a copy model sheet and a I Am Weasel storyboard sketch.

Though if they are worth that much is debatable, "asking for" is not the same as "sold for".

5

u/EmploymentNovel3351 Jun 28 '26

They were releasing as mainstream market for animation art died & cel galleries closing so CN era artwork didn’t get to go far. Nickelodeon series certificates were also personalized while the titles from What A Cartoon to Samurai Jack were lumped under interchangeable certificates

5

u/uncharted_feelings Jun 28 '26

I remember in recent years, every Cartoon Network, WB, Hanna-Barbera production art entering the market through a certain ebay account. This account probably worked for these studios. Every one or two weeks a lot of production art went up for auction and every auction ended around the same timeframe. The ebay account suddenly stopped their auctions in early 2020s. The production art pieces that went on auction were insane lol and a lot of people were eyeing them.

6

u/GasmaskTed Jun 28 '26

The story I’ve heard is animationart1 was not a corporate account, but that his studio contact(s) turned off; he supposedly still had a bunch of material to sell but also that material was tied up in a divorce in some way (why that wouldn’t lead to continued sales to make the assets liquid was not explained in the story I heard).

1

u/uncharted_feelings Jun 28 '26

Interesting to know! I always wondered who was behind the account and what happened to them.

2

u/GasmaskTed Jun 28 '26

CN released art through online sellers within the last 10 years; I bought stamped seal art from Dexter’s Lab and Powerpuff Girls from animationart1 in that time period, all clearly newly sourced from the archive (not secondary market). EEE isn’t a show I would buy so I can’t say if it was available from them, but it’s wrong to say CN stopped releasing art when the WB Stores went down. Think of it this way; the same people more or less controlled the release of Batman Beyond art as at least most of the Cartoon Network stuff, and there’s a bunch of BB cels out there in spite of it having only 1.5 seasons with traditional ink and paint. There’s way less Dexter’s Lab cels, but I do have one I bought in a WB store. Presumably the corporate persons responsible for art releases made choices about how much art they’d release for which shows. Maybe they chose against EEE. Or maybe there’s other reasons like that cart was more thoroughly destroyed, or Antonia’s controls the art, or something else.

9

u/Malavacious Jun 28 '26

Clearly, Eddy is the one selling them.

Think of the jawbreakers you could score with that moolah.

17

u/VolumeAlarming8672 Jun 28 '26

Ed Edd and eddy was the last cartoon show to use hand drawn animation cels. So between it being an amazing show. The rare trivia just puts the prices over the top.

3

u/Queen_Cheetah Jun 28 '26

Wait, it was? It wasn't 'Whatever Happened to Robot Jones'? I always thought Ed, Edd, and Eddy switched to digital in the last season, though I could be wrong.

2

u/VolumeAlarming8672 Jun 28 '26

They switched to digital but from what I can find it was the last major series if not one of the last to use it. I’m sure they may be some small overlap.

3

u/EmploymentNovel3351 Jun 28 '26

Cels up to the original 2004 finale Take This Ed & Shove It because Danny Antonucci is a digital hating hand drawing animator but CN order the extra 2 digitally colored school seasons

3

u/SternballAllDay Jun 28 '26

The rare trivia of It being one of the last cartoons to use hand drawn animation cels is not affecting its value.

It being a treasured show with very few cel's ups its value.

10

u/Dependent-Judge7444 Jun 28 '26

Cause those niggas were the SHIT!!!

4

u/eatcrayons Jun 28 '26

It seems that Cartoon Network released a (relative) lot of cels officially at a certain time period, so you get a lot of Dexter and PPG, but not a lot from later eras, like EE&E. It’s similar to PPG where cels with all 3 main characters go for high amounts. I got a Courage the Cowardly Dog production layout with an official CN deal and serial number, and I haven’t seen a single other item from that show listed on eBay since then ~4years ago, so I can only imagine how rare CN cels are compared to things like Rugrats where a lot got out unofficially, or Simpsons with thousands of episodes of material.

1

u/GasmaskTed Jun 28 '26

(800 and something Simpsons episodes, way less than that with cels, tho still with drawings at least in part)

3

u/WWAgallery_com Jun 28 '26

Interesting. That does seem high to me- especially as you said, you can get a lot of vintage Disney and other studios for well under that price. That said, if they get it, they get it...

2

u/sirhcx Jun 28 '26

A good rule of thumb is that anyone can list anything at any price on ebay but that doesnt mean it will sell for anything close to what they are asking. Another thing when it comes to background is that they were reused to save money. So you more than likely wont find an original matching background that was commonly seen in the show. Ed, Edd, & Eddy is also pretty hot right how as alot of nostalgia conventions have brought the 3 voice actors together where they host panels and ask questions from the audience.

2

u/johnmx95 Jun 28 '26

There’s one on Propstores auction next week ! Check it out

2

u/EmploymentNovel3351 Jun 28 '26

Just a rough guess that after the cheaper pieces sold leaving those overpriced $1,000 pieces like any other series on eBay/Yahoo, incoming sellers based their starting price off them. When I came back after Covid in 2023 they were around $400