Greetings!

"purple star" ... Have you had any bad experiences?

A few, but not as many as you would think. Out of the 1,100 plus transactions I have done, I can only think of about 10 that I regret and only 2 that were outright scams. (Note: My account is used by the whole family, so not all of these transactions were "stuff for me" or "stuff from me", but I did all of the ebay auction work.) Some of the regrets were people bidding and returning stuff that they claim was a problem - but I think they just changed their minds, some where the buyer was just annoying to deal with. All in all, not a bad ratio.

... how many Empegs does one-person need?

Well, I personally have three that I keep. My main player, currently suffering from deceleration trauma from a sled mishap / demo at the office. My spare player, currently travelling between the car and office. My home player, constantly connected to my PC and stereo, where I do my initial syncs and is the source of my testing and rsyncs. All of these are rsynced at 120GB, illuminated and digital out.

Working in IT and administration, I know the importance of having redundant hardware for "mission critical" applications - like car audio.

Paul has at least 3 that I know of.

I do, if I spot a bargain, buy additional empegs on ebay or the board. I do not normally keep them long, but resell them to people I know at the office or elsewhere. Over time, I think I have handled / owned about 11 players, if only for a short time.

...one of you folks that have multiple multiples would be nice enough to sell me one...

I am sure that could be arranged...