Hardly. I've bought at least 15+/- frames in the past minus fork without incident. If they weren't NOS frames (why should an NOS frame be missing a fork?), they were rough, used framesets in a similar condition - minus front-end damage - to the OP's frame. In the occasional case wherein I had the opportunity to find out the fate of the fork from the seller, I've found that they often wind up completing frames in better condition. Many of these forks were all-chrome and looked quite a bit better than their respective frames.

That said, the main photo in the auction would betray the headtube damage to a trained eye, but that's no excuse of ignorance from the seller.

-Kurt