I still don't see the issue. Are you suggesting that if someone buys something they aren't allowed to sell it?
The listing is truthful when it says the unit doesn't power on, and I can't see that it matters where the seller got the thing from, nor how much he wants for it in its current state (even vs what he paid for it - 'profit' is a word with an actual meaning).
Precisely. I've done it before where I've purchased an item off ebay knowing full well that I'm going to get it for a bargain price (and later resell it) or I've poached parts from the unit but returned the bought unit to some kind of sell-able condition.
As dunkemhigh said, as long as you've described the listing accurately, who cares? If I own something, it's mine to do whatever I want with. If I make a bit of money out of it, hooray for me.
Well, I've been on the receiving end of buying equipment for parts/repair that have been cannibalized.
Case in point, in the last year or so I bought a TDS784D that was listed as "not powering on."
What I got was a unit that had the following faults:
1. Dead CRT.
2. Dead HV assembly.
3. Dead power supply from a TDS700A
4. 3 blown attenuator hybrids. They were obviously swapped in as they had different (older) revisions. Probably also from a TDS700A.
5. The wrong CPU assembly (came from a TDS784A)
In this case, the seller bought the scope knowing that it had a bad mainboard and swapped out the working power supply with a bad one, then lists the scope as not powering on, knowing full well that the mainboard is bad, but not disclosing it as such.
I find it deceptive that a seller would cannabilize a piece of equipment, and load it up with bad parts. YMMV...