Hi,
I am about to put an alarm for friend of mine. We did browse ebay and there were some decent deals within 250 budget. The alarm the friend wants does not require central monitoring and is able to dial up to 6 phone numbers in case the alarm is triggered. I've approached the system and installation from the burglar prospective and found that most of the systems currently avaialble on the market represent almost ZERO security value. We've seen very solid and sophisticated BOSCH alarm avaialble for sale, but it is EU make with the AC/DC power compatability issues and killing shiping fee :-(

If anyone has an existing alarm or planning to install one - it might be benificial to spend few minutes here: http://www.providentsecurity.ca/blog/2006/10/criminal_instal.html