I had been looking at some hoods on ebay as well, and you can find some good deals. Beware though that all grades of stainless steel are not the same. That hood is likely made with 416 SS which can rust. Most higher quality hoods are made from 304 SS. You may want to email the seller to find out. I don't think you need to spend thousands to get a good hood. Our appliance dealer sold us a 36" from a brand called independent for $626 and a 1200CFM blower for $260. Most of it is covered by a custom wood enclosure on ours anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stainless steel grading

Make sure the cfm is accurate. What we found looking at eBay range hoods is many were rated at 700 to 1000 cfm (don't remember the number might have been 870 for the most popular one quoted). When I enquired about the cfm to see if that was some peak reading or for further information what the typical response was either no response or an email back say that is what they were being told by their supplier. When I asked if there were any other specs quoted such as "wind power" or some such which was popular in many of the ads the rating was quoted as some number of m3/min. When I went to a conversion site online I found many of these ratings were actually putting the true cfm at 400 to 500 cfm instead of the higher cfms being quoted. When I emailed purchasers who gave glowing feedback I found the great majority had only looked in the box and had not installed the vent as they were in process on the kitchen. The others had them installed and felt they worked good, but had no way of telling if they were actually pulling the cfm advertised.
Comment on stainless above is another to look at. Very true. Find out what grade and then look it up online to see if it is one that is good or one that will give you issues later. One thing we found with our commerical stainless is that magnets will not stick to it. Lower grades will.
Also, see if the vent has a flexible duct line for use with it. If it does, everything I read at least, says that the flexible line will significantly reduce the actual pulling power of the vent. Anyone step in here if I'm remembering that wrong.
Lastly, I'm not a dealer of any kind so have no preference on vents etc. Just a joe shmo that was in the same boat and could not believe the price of vents. There is no way the materials etc. even if the unit had the rare USA labor should be that high in my estimation. Maybe silly, but they seemed a huge profit area for suppliers. We ended up shopping and shopping until we found a clearance unit for a much more reasonable price. Have a look in your town to see if there are any stores that do this.

Anyway, best of luck with it and really do your research if you go with an eBay one. Also, maybe try looking up the name of the manufacturer on google.co.uk and see if it is a euro one.

Cheers

Excellent information from both of you. thanks!

The seller emailed back the SS was 430, which according to Wikipedia is "Type 430Âdecorative, e.g., for automotive trim; ferritic. Good formability, but with reduced temperature and corrosion resistance"

Not what anyone wants in a range hood.

430 actually has good corrosion resistance, per SSIUS (specialty steel industry of the US). SS430 is the general purpose stainless of the Ferritic Stainless steels. Wikepedia does have inaccuracies - mainly due to the fact anyone can add to Wikipedia.

However, having bought a double-oven off ebay, and noting experiences of others purchasing ebay items I do have a word of warning. Often times you believe you are purchasing 1 thing (a Wolf double-oven, framed) and when it shows up it's just a little different (a Wolf double-oven, unframed). This worked out ok as we feel the unframed look matches many of the newer oven designs & may keep our's more current looking over time. I keep reading posts (here & Discuss Cooking) of folks who are buying 1 product off ebay & end up with close to what they ordered but not exactly what they ordered.

We bought our Thermador cooktop online, you save tax & markup that way. But, we bought the venthood from Great Indoors. IMHO, the venthood is much more complicated than the cooktop, in the effort to fit up & duct, etc. Maybe your situation is different. But, if you buy a hood & it doesn't fit, you will need to return it.

Good luck.

I purchased a Fabyka hood on Ebay 3 years ago. Although it appeared to be well built, stainless steel, quiet operation and it ran like a charm for three years, It died 1 day after the three year parts warrenty period. It Appears to be an electronics failure with the main circuit board.
To make matters worse the 800 # has been disconnected and emails come back "address unknown" I am still searching to find parts for this $700 piece of scrap steel, cause it's useless without a working circuit board.