Unfinished kits frequently end up on eBay. Projects finished by someone other than who started the aircraft are featured in this months magazine. There is a lot of difference between " Kyle's Falco (page 98vol 67,#2 of Sport Aviation magazine) and the $5000 Sonex with some dents on eBay that some guy wants gone last year.
To me buying an abandoned kit looks like very dangerous territory. Are there successful builds from long forgotten projects that weren't family projects?
There has to be lessons to learn from stalled and abandoned projects, is anyone doing post mortem analysis?