i've been trying to tout magento for a while, but honestly its looking like its piling up into a giant mess. its system requirements are steep, and its the only php/mysql app that i've had massive issues with even trying to install on my local server. these issues have lingered for months now with no improvement.
if you're running wamp/xampp, you have to download a replacement pdo_mysql.dll file from some techno dance site just to get the thing to work, and even then you're presented with a billion pdo dump errors.
plus, the thing is slow as hell, has a completely ridiculous learning curve for theming compared to other cms's/e-commerce packages, and just tries to do way too much out of the box. the initial hype on the product was interesting but now meh.