Ah, that's a bummer.
I discovered that the item I had planned on bidding on previous weekend wasn't withdrawn. The reason it vanished was because it was put on a "Buy it Now" by the seller at a vastly inflated price as I discovered last night whilst running one of my regular searches. Shame, as I liked it, but at that price I'm not biting. £15 would be fair for a department store "own brand" item. £40 most definitely isn't. I get the feeling it will sit there gathering dust for a while.
The item was cheap enough for what it was (700c wheel with one of those Sturmey-Archer combined dynohub/drum brake). In reality, it's one of those things I'd like to try to see how it works in practice but don't really need.
Every time I ride my vintage Elswick with drum brakes, they work so well despite being nearly 100 years old, I hanker after a winter bike with drum brakes. In reality, the canti brakes on my Pioneer have stopped me successfully all winter.