Fortune favours the brave

If you are buying a £2 CD from the internet, then you can probably take a chance on it being OK. If you are buying something as complex and potentially expensive as a Triumph Stag, you would probably be well advised to check it out thoroughly before parting with your cash. Sometimes though, you can take a chance and get away with it.

- Andy Starkey

The internet is a mixed blessing. On the one hand it makes finding that obscure something so much easier, but its effect on the nation’s High Streets can be devastating. That’s because for many people, places like eBay have become the go to source for that little something. The emphasis here though being on ‘little’ – such sites are full of bits and bobs for just about anything, but I can’t help thinking that there’s more than an element of risk in buying something ‘big’ like a car.

For a start, you are bidding on something you can’t actually see, except for a handful of pictures taken by the owner. Often everything looks great, but you have to hope that they have not accidentally forgotten to photograph that little bit of rust on the other side or mention the crack in the engine block. After all, these things can slip a person’s mind in the excitement of listing an old banger – sorry, ‘family treasure’ – for sale.

Not that this stops people from bidding online, or even more recklessly clicking the dreaded BUY IT NOW button and then that’s it, the car is yours. Someone who has been either so brave or so reckless is Tony Beggan, who bought this lovely red Stag via eBay way back in 2009. But was it a regrettable purchase, full of anguish and a load of unforeseen bills? Let’s find out, shall we...