Could have been worse. Could have been your big marlinspike folding knife in your pocket while you were standing at the helm of a sailboat. I'm admitting nothing... :-)<br><br>Actually, that was pretty obvious- the compass dial wheeled around more the closer I leaned toward it.<br><br>But, since I already told another one to Barry at Blue Line, I'll share it here...<br><br>A couple of months ago I was delighted to find a "Brunton Nexus 27LU" compass in a very large sports store locally- it's virtually identical to my old favorite, a "Silva Landmark 27", which is a mirror-sighting compass scaled down to matchbook size. It was selling for $12.99.<br> <br>Unfortunately, when I got it up to the counter they tried to charge me $20 for it. They apologized, said it had been entered into the computer wrong, had to get a manager to change something, and eventually I paid what was labeled- but I didn't notice that after this hassle I was not given a receipt.<br> <br>So, naturally, when I got home I found that the compass was lacking in one quality I never thought to check in the store... it didn't point North. At all. In fact, It had a very, very slight tendency to point South, but it wasn't really strong enough to overcome bearing (or maybe liquid) friction most of the time.<br> <br>Not having been given a receipt, I couldn't take it back to the store... but Brunton was good enough to give me an RMA and exchange it... eventually. Only took a month and 3 days, and of course a few more bucks to ship it...<br><br>You don't really appreciate how important a magnetized needle is, to a compass, until someone sells you one without it... :-)<br><br>Next time you buy one, you might want to take a second to check that little feature...