Are cheap online holidays good value?

By lauren hood
January 28th 2010, 3:59pm

Shoppers are being warned to do their research before buying cheap holidays online.

This comes as Ebay has announced it is partnering with Octopus Travel to offer package deals from as little as 99p.

You will be able to bid for these deals in the same way you would for any other item for sale on the auction website.

But there are warnings that buying a holiday online is not always as good a deal as it seems.

South London Shopkeeper Brian Barrington says he had a bad experience after buying a weeks holiday at a Cottage in Wales on an online auction site.

"It was awful. absolutely awful, really, really, bad value for money and really and bad judgement on my part

It was just dirty accommodation.  I was going off the pictures on ebay which were all scenic countryside photos taken from around the cottage but the cottage itself was like a council house"

Mr Barrington chose to book a holiday for his wife and two young children online as it was last minute and he hoped to save money.

Although he says he would never personally book a holiday on an auction site again he advises anyone who does to do their research:

"I would say to phone the guys up or email them and say 'send me some interior photos' or just really, really check out the property"

So if you're now wary of buying a holiday online there are plenty of other weird and wonderful things which you can bid on on Ebay

These are ten of the strangest things we found which you can bid on today:

  1.  A wedge of tree with an apparent image of Simon Cowell

  2.  Self defense against alien abduction pamphlet

  3.  An acre of the moon

  4.  A real straight jacket

  5.  A used bar of soap from the Hotel room of a celebrity (not named)

  6.  An old plaster of Paris cast from someones broken arm

  7.  A grow your own boyfriend kit

  8.   $100 shredded

  9.  Human teeth plaster dental cast

  10.  Someone to think about you for a day (for which there are 6 bids!)

It seems people are willing to sell almost anything these days and more worringly it's clear some people are willing to pay for them!

 

Watch the video on the right to find out what other things you can buy on Ebay.

 

So what is the weirdest thing you have ever bought off ebay?  Tell us below.

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