Have looked at a load of barcode scanners on Amazon and Ebay, mostly CCD LED ones in the sub £40 price bracket.
Was about to order a £20 CCD LED model but then saw this was laser and didn't look any worse, so decided I would risk the extra £10 for a laser model.
When it came I was surprised to find a stand in the box. It's not listed on the specs so I'm not sure if everyone ordering this product will get one, but it was a welcome bonus. Mine came from supplier "Vairocana Group Inc" and I'd also note my scanner has a yellow coloured trigger, not a black one as in the photos.
The "Ascan" badge is very cheapy but the actual unit could be a lot worse in build quality when you take into consideration how much the main barcode manufacturers charge for their models. Connection is via a 2m(approx) USB cable with RJ45 connection at scanner end, and the unit installed quickly as a "HID Keyboard Device" on my Windows XP PC.
Like all the barcode scanners I have used it scans a code and then sends the code to the PC as if you had manually typed it on your keyboard. Therefore you have to have the cursor in the right place in the right application. Mine came set to scan a barcode and then send an "Enter" press so it moves to the next line, but you can change this to "Tab" or turn it off. Looking at the manual it is highly configurable, but as it currently seems to scan everything I throw at it I'm not planning on delving any further into the manual.
I use it for scanning serial numbers and part codes on IT equipment. So far it has scanned every one dimensional barcode I have shown it (Won't scan 2D barcodes obviously at this price). A lot of barcodes on IT components are very small (especially on RAM and Hard Drives), on the smallest I have scanned you have to put the scanner a little closer but it still worked for me at 3" away. If you use it at 3-4" away it seems very quick and accurate unlike some CCD LED scanners I have used where you spend half your time moving the reader around trying to get a scan on the smaller barcodes.
Exceeded my expectations for the money, I will be ordering another one.