I have been buying primarily through eBay for a couple of decades now. Maybe 90%. My 2nd source is discogs. I rarely buy at a brick and mortar store: the selections are far too limited.
I look for NM pressings from close to the release date.
I find that they are superior to reissues/remastered reissues 95% of the time.
I suspect the reasons are:
- master tapes degrade over time, so someone promoting an LP as “remastered from the master tapes” is hoping you will be bamboozled by the word “master”.
- add to this problem, some remastering is done digitally. ADA is inferior to AAA, and the difference can be heard. For example, I stopped buying MFSL pressings at a certain point because they somehow were no longer sounding as good as my old somewhat worn pressings. I then later learned - as did everyone else - about how they introduced a digital step into their process without making that clear to everyone.