... isn't necessarily unethical, Marv. In fact, it happens all the time in the business world -- many distribution businesses operate largely on the process of accepting orders for material which they don't have (perhaps, which hasn't even been MADE yet), for delivery at some specified (and in some cases, as yet unspecified) future date.

Of course, such businesses operate in this way on the assumption that they will be able to obtain the product in a timely manner (doesn't always work out that way, though).

This situation IS somewhat different, but even in this context, I don't think it is unethical to offer for sale something which you do not yet possess, but which you have made an apparently binding contract to purchase.

>> What would happen if the chips were lost in the mail and the only rememdy
>> that the seller received was a full refund and not a replacement and the
>> auction had ended and the seller had received his funds?

In that case, the seller would have to either find the chips elsewhere or offer a refund himself. Not the end of the world in either event. Once again, this kind of thing happens all the time in the business world.

On the other hand, as I have said before, I think the use of someone else's scans without consent IS unethical, even if not by linking and using bandwidth.

----- jim o\-S