[woodchips]

I find this strange, an auction is an auction, it is cheap simply because you have no idea of the condition of the lots, you take a chance. So saying I would never buy from one is fine, just as long as you have the money to pay for the items others have bought and are now passing on. The only way of getting used to gambling at an auction is to do it. Don't do it as a one off event, you will be disappointed. My first auction buy was a small air compressor, everyone was laughing because they knew the piston and con rod were missing, what I wanted was the single phase motor, sniff test said it wasn't burnt out, I was happy.

I bought my CT160 from Ramco, must be 10-15 years ago, from memory I paid about £300 but only VAT to add to that. It looked new, took a chance, still not powered it up.

With all the help and assistance given on this site, thanks, I would have thought that a dead meter is a pretty unimportant failure compared with a busted roller switch or crisped transformer. Another meter with a DC amplifier solves the problem, not original, so what, it works.