I've seen some complaints here about unscrupulous ebay sellers. Yes; some are dishonest, some are liars, some are sneak thieves, some are internet versions of used car salesmen. Sometimes the problem is just someone not knowing the exact English word to describe what he honestly means. I just saw a new benchmark set in PETTY larceny today: kind of like that guy in about 2001 who would sell a calculator and it's battery door in separate auctions.
http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Prism-Frame-Survey-Construction-Engineer-Target-NR_W0QQitemZ110413331070QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b525ba7e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A13|66%3A2|39%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 was sold on 7/14. This just came on the market and was buy-it-now'd, from the same pickpocket / er, seller.
I watch for these because as folks at the San Diego HHC saw; I have one of the old HP survey instruments (yes i've used it at work), and want a triple bucket for it. I didn't even bother bidding because i had no interest in just a frame.
Little did I (or the "winner") know; this jerk was parting it out, even though nothing was wrong with it except the missing target. He clearly just thought he would get more money for it this way. He didn't. They go for about $60 or $70, when complete. He got $20 total for the pieces and no doubt had to bother boxing and shipping them separately. Don't you just love it when one of "the smartest guys in the room" shorts himself?