Video Games eBayer buys a picture of an XBox 360 for £470

...or more likely because "virginity" would be an item that is against eBay's policies.

Actually, what caitlincutie is grounds for legal action in the case of misleading advertisement. The basic law of disclosure is that anything "material" (read: important) to a consumer must be "clear and conspicuous." Hiding that one line stating it was actually just a picture underneath the headline "XBOX 360 PREMIUM PACKAGE" in caps at the top of the ad with a picture of the full system was definately being unclear and inconspicuous. They were consciously tricking the buyer - it wasn't some standard fine print like "some assembly is required".

The United States' Federal Trade Commission has taken cases on against big companies like Office Depot, Microsoft, Gateway, and Mazda for hiding fine print in ads.

From ConsumerReports.org:

"Typically, cases are settled when a company makes restitution, alters its ads, and promises not to hide important information anymore. Mazda, however, had violated a previous settlement, and so in 1999 it was socked with a $5.25 million penalty for promoting "one penny down" financing. As pennies floated across the screen, four screens of print disclosed you'd have to pony up 90,000 more pennies: $900 in fees and charges, just to drive off the lot."

I would say $5.25 million is quite a bit more than "untouched". ^^

Bottom line is, the small print should never ever beat out the large. This is also why eBay's policy has details regarding Misleading Titles. Note on that page that they reserve the right to suspend your account, which happened to the seller in this case.

Agreed, though, that one should always be wary of being swindled. Just because it isn't legal doesn't mean they can't find a way to get away with it.