Just how sensitive is a bottle of wine?

[sharon001]

I actually have two questions...

1) I am a wine enthusiast, but I have to admit that I live in an apartment and have no cellar or other professional-type storage space for wine(s). If I store wines in my average temperature apartment for a few months, are they going to be adversely affected?

2) I just bought a few older bottles of wine on e-bay and am wondering how long I should let them "sit" or "settle" before drinking them... Also, is it generally a bad idea to buy older wines off e-bay, given that there's no real way of knowing how they were stored?

I guess my overall question is just how sensitive wines are to their storing conditions...