As an internet trader I have bought and sold using paypal. I also use a company for accepting credit card orders – I won’t mention the name of them but will say that they are owned by a large UK bank – their system handles all the card details etc and I never get to see them. In my experience paypal just keeps getting better whilst the other company just get worse (they were great to start with but I was one of their few customers then). The number of attempted fraudulent transactions with other people’s cards is frightening (I have had quite a few US based cards being used for delivery to other countries – thankfully my anti fraud sytems have detected them) – it just shows you must be careful when using your credit card online although most of the risk is for the trader. One thing I do use as an alternative when I am buying is the Cahoot Webcard. This gives me a unique card number and I can set the maximum value for every transaction. Great if I want to use a web site that does not appear as secure as it should be (one model site I bought from tried to charge my card 6 months after I had ordered – they had never contacted me to say they were out of stock)

I got one of these Revell kits off Ebay for a tenner a year or so ago. I have seen secondhand dealers offering them for as much as £30. Nice kit.