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With religion's licence revoked and football a perennial national disappointment, eBay is the new opium of the masses. In the three months it took David Belbin to write this handbook to www.ebay.co.uk, the number of registered users of the online auction site rose from 7.8 million to nine million: over one-third of Britain's internet users visited it during March alone. Belbin's guide to eBay's rules and etiquette is painstakingly exhaustive, whether he is carefully explaining that it's forbidden to purvey plants or dirty underwear on the site, or regaling us with lengthy accounts of his efforts to track down REM's debut single ("with a slight imperfection on the sleeve") or flog Dan Dare annuals in cyberspace. Still, there are a few handy tips in here, and if you feel it's over-priced at a tenner, at the time of writing you can pick one up on eBay ("with no spine creases or dog-eared pages") for pounds 3.20.