Donna said Years ago...(decades, actually!), when I was in college, I worked part time at Woolworths...one of my duties was to take a shopping cart and load it up with all of the magazines that had not sold the previous month. We would tear off the front covers and send them back to the companies...(I think there was a refund or a credit system in place)...but the magazines were up for grabs by any employee that wanted one.
When I saw this on E-Bay..that's what I thought..these people probably have some connection through a store or market where they can pick up the out of date magazines.
I don't see anything wrong with this, as long as they are honest about what you're getting. The price is certainly right, and a pattern is a pattern...after all...people buy used or recycled things on that site every day.
I know that it is illegal to profit from books that have their cover ripped off, so I think it would be illegal for magazines as well.
I think most of us are uncomfortable with purchasing something like a pattern that isn't being sold by it's creator, or the publishing company that owns it. I would guess that selling the pattern that has been removed from the magazine would be considered your property if you bought it. But copying someone else's intellectual property is illegal. I wonder if we have a lawyer, or someone that knows the ins and outs of copyright law?