There's the old warning about not scratching your nose during a live auction in case you attract the auctioneer's eye, plus the ever-present danger of blood rushing to your head during a bidding war, ending up with you spending far more than your maximum, but has anyone come a cropper on an online auction?

I ask because some years ago I had a disastrous experience when bidding on an eGun.de auction while I was abroad on holiday, using my mobile phone. I placed the bid in a mad rush before going out and must have put in an extra digit by accident.

When I got back a couple of hours after the auction ended, to my horror I found I had spent over 700 euros on a pistol (£500 odd at the time). I really wanted it, but thought my maximum bid had been about 400 euros, and obviously I hoped to get it for less. Someone else obviously wanted it badly too...

I couldn't even look at the pistol for about two years, so painful was the memory it brought back!

But now, several years on, the memory has faded and I'm glad to have it in my collectioin. Just shows that what seems like a grossly over-the-odds amount at the time, gradually begins to looks more reasonable. In a decade or so, it might even look like a bargain.