If there's one thing that humans are incredibly creative at, it's coming up with ways to scam other people.
One of the newest (or at least somewhat new) forms of scamming is selling used or even completely non-functional GPUs as "new" on Ebay and other online marketplaces.
People and even companies selling completely unsealed products as new on such websites is nothing unusual, as they have been doing that for literally decades. For many companies it's just effectively another distribution platform, and in fact one that cuts many middle-men and thus can be cheaper. Thus finding completely new unused products on Ebay and similar websites is nothing strange.
What some scammers are doing, however, is purchasing used products, such as GPUs, for very cheap and then selling them as "new", for a much higher price (close to the retail price of that product). They might disguise themselves as genuine sellers, or they might just say "purchased by mistake, brand new, never opened".
Of course that on itself wouldn't necessarily work very well because these websites have protections against scams, and if you are sold something that's not what was advertised, Ebay (and other similar websites) will go through the process of returning the product and refunding your money.
To avoid this, these scammers go to lengths to fool you into believing the the product, eg. GPU, actually is brand new. If the GPU is lacking any stickers they will print them and add them. If the product didn't come with the original box, they will buy them in bulk for very cheap. And, most prominently, they will wrap the box in plastic, making it look very genuinely unopened (there are plastic wrapping machines that you can buy, which you can use to wrap boxes in a very similar manner as actual manufacturers do.) If they are selling it with the excuse of "purchased by mistake, never opened", they will just print out a fake receipt to accompany the product.
If the GPU works, the buyer may be none the wiser. They just bought a used card as "new" for a higher price, and might never even notice that they were scammed.
A much more devious version of this scam is when the scammer actually sells a defective product as "new". This happens more often in marketplaces where the goods are sold and exchanged in person, such as Craigslist. The scammer may get eg. a defective GPU, or an intentionally non-functioning GPU (there are sellers that sell only the PCB and shroud of GPUs, without the core nor RAM, for use in repairs etc.) and likewise make it look like brand new, by getting the package and wrapping it in plastic, and printing out fake receipts. Such a defective GPU might even light up its LEDs when connected to a computer and its fans might spin, but of course it will be completely unusable and non-functional. But by that point the scammer will be long gone.
The devious thing about this latter type of scam is that even if you wanted to see the product in action before buying it, the scammer will have a genuine excuse for why you can't: Opening the product will immediately lessen its value, so he doesn't want to do that.
My personal opinion is that even if it costs a little bit more, it's safer to just buy such expensive products directly from reputable stores rather than Ebay, even if the seller appears to be genuine and even if the product is advertised as "new". Those extra few bucks will give you reassurance that you are actually buying a genuine product, and warranties will be obeyed properly if needed.
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