I bought a kit that included a reasonably sized 360° magnet, rope, grappling hook and protective cover for about £120 thinking that it would be good enough to keep me satisfied for a while.
After my first trip out and having to carry a load of scrap metal about a mile back to the car, I bought a cart for £80 so I could cart it all back instead. After having to use my car to pull my magnet out of the harbour on Saturday I've bought a cheap winch and a tow rope to anchor it to things for £25 for when it gets stuck somewhere I can't use my car.
And of course I wanted a bigger magnet almost immediately, but I've managed to hold off on that so far. Saying that it's fairly likely I will get an upgrade from Bondi magnets when the site launches as long as the price is competitive with Magnetar (I suspect it's a partnership and the magnets will be identical, but we'll see)
I don't know, I didn't pull the object out with it. I'm guessing it got caught on something large and got wedged in so I couldn't just overcome the force of the magnet to get it off. Could have been something huge and magnetic, or could've just been stuck between rocks. I was just happy to not lose my magnet
It would be poor form to leave everything I pull out by the side of the canal/river/harbour, so I load it all up into the car and take it home to be weighed in for scrap when the shed is full. Anything I think is cool or I like the look of I clean up and keep.