being a newbie (less than 3 months collecting) I 
wanted to offer a view from 'the other side' so 
to speak.  When I first decided to collect cels 
for BGC2040, I had NO IDEA what they were worth 
for 2 reasons.  

1 - as a newbie, I had no history of what they 
are worth (and still don't have it tuned in very 
well yet either).  When I say 'new' I mean it 
too - I have NEVER collected any cels before and 
had no idea what they were worth.  

2 - because of the lack cels with prices and 
vendors with them for sale, I couldn't begin to 
make reasonable offers for people's cels (if you 
were a 'victim' of one of my emails, thanks to 
those who replied and replied nicely too).  And 
the ones I could find, the differences of ranges 
made it difficult to make any type of 'fair 
market value' for other cels (the 'cheapest one 
I've seen was less than $10, the most expensive 
was well over $100, so go figure).  

This is how I try to approach making offers - 
honesty.  Emails to individuals asking about 
possible sales of their cels, I made perfectly 
clear that I was a newbie and I had NO IDEA what 
to offer and if they would consider selling a 
particular cel and respond with a price.  I 
didn't get responses from some, but most did and 
very nicely too.  Some were willing to sell, 
some weren't - all good!  Some even helped me 
along the way by pointing me in the right 
direction as well as offering me very good 
advice.  

So, in my advice, politeness and honesty pays 
off.  

Oh, and as I just got all my cels scanned, 
here's one of my first (which I got at a very 
good price too...)