This has turned out better than I had hoped. I went to talk to a local shop to talk about the reel and as fate would have it - they had a VS 250 in black
- which I couldn't get my hands on before this whole saga began... and believe me I tried. My g/f was ready to tear my face off when she saw the two on the kitchen table.
I did end up taking the 200 back and got a full refund. I told my g/f I did it for her but she probably knows I intended to do that anyways. She's not as dumb as she sometimes pretends to be.
Back to fishing... Thanks all.