Gary,

First of all welcome to the Chipboard!

When you said in your post that the seller "uses the term rare and scarce very liberally", I knew which seller you were talking about. You are not the 1st person to complain about his business practices. He is not a club member to the best of my knowledge.

I believe that it is unethical to post a scan of one chip & send another UNLESS it is disclosed CLEARLY in the auction listing.

There are several things you can do the way I see it:

• You could complain to eBay's Safeharbor but I don't know if it would do you much good
• You could leave negative feedback for the seller so other's are warned but you will probably receive a negative back so you have to decide if it's worth it
• You could chalk it up as lesson learned for hopefully not a whole lot of $$$ & vow to never do business with him again no matter how bad you need a chip he's selling (like most of us have done)

Good luck to you!
Bill R-4581