Suppose an individual "stole/borrowed" someone else's scan for the purpose of illustrating a chip that he/she wishes to sell on ebay. You ask; "what is the harm?"

The harm is that the chip being sold is NOT the chip that is being illustrated. As a bidder, I'm bidding on the characteristics displayed on a chip that is being shown in the scan. That's the whole purpose of illustrating a chip ... so that the bidder knows what he/she is bidding on.

The bidder is being "harmed" if he/she pays for a chip that is NOT the actual chip being presented.

The least a seller using someone else's scans could do is to advise potential bidders that the chip being illustrated is not the chip they will be receiving. Why don't they do that? Most likely because they wouldn't get too many bids.

Ebay sellers ought to invest in an inexpensive scanner rather than borrowing other folks scans. It's like your next door neighbor wanting to borrow your tools all the time instead of purchasing his own.

On the other hand, I think some folks who already have thier own scanner are just too lazy to scan their own chips. It's much easier to steal someone elses scans.