Retailing for about $30 in some shops, $50 in others, I paid around $35 for this one. Looks great doesn't it? Wrong!! Although I still wear it, on the first day of use one of the metal eyelets fell out of the hole. Then a few days later another one bit the dust. Lesson learned. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

VERDICT - I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO A SHOP!

First ever auction purchase. Talk about diving in at the deep end!! Retailing for about $350 at the time, I managed to snap this up for $200. I also spent about a week or more finding out about the features I wanted (ie. 2 shock controllers) and this time it paid off.

VERDICT - SUCCESS!!!

My ratings system is simple. The results are either "Success!" or "Not"
Over time I will compile a graph of successes and not so successful purchases. In the descriptions I will also include why they were successful or not. This will create a picture of what can go wrong (or well!). You can learn from my mistakes.

Of course, I won't mention any names but here are a few of my roaring successes and outright stuff ups with online shopping...

I saw a Current Affairs type program about a man who bought a car on ebay that never showed up. Now I get annoyed at things like that because it doesn't have to happen - there are two reasons it happened:

1. There are some unscrupulous people out there who will take what they can get.

And:

2. People get fooled.

I can't say it enough. Don't use Western Union to transfer money to people you don't know. It is not traceable!! Also, don't think you know someone because you have exchanged a number of emails. It is so easy to build up a false rapport and generate a sense of security very quickly. Remember, often these scammers do what they do because they are good at it. It's important that more people don't get fooled. If just 1 scammer gets put out of business from this information, I will be a very happy person.

Buying a car on an internet auction is like going to inspect a car in the dark with a blindfold on.