I agree! I was in the exact same position about a year and a half ago
My first hamster lived in a fairly large DIY cage but I could not fit a big enough wheel in, so next I brought a cage with was too small and I had to take a floor out to fit a wheel in. My next "bright idea" was to buy a smaller cage to add on as a sleeping and eating area, so I spent £40 on a useless crittertrail cage that would not connect to my other Ferplast cage and was harmful to my hamsters as the tubes were too small. It was cheap, plastic, had poor ventilation and cracked in the first week that I had it. I then found Hamster Central and corrected my mistake... I bought one larger cage for my hamster. However this mistake cost me around £400, because I, along wth 100's of others were tricked be gready and igorant pet shops.