Second hand vinyl surface damage.

Any scratches i would pass also deep scuffs leave in the bin.I have over 5 thousand mint lps mostly classical,blues and some jazz.

whart

Impossible to tell without play checking the record, ideally after a good cleaning. There are tell-tales that can indicate a record is trashed, but even a pristine looking record can suffer from groove chew by old kludgey tone arms ... I’ve had records that looked like crap and plays fine and others that look fine and are distorted, the groove walls having been abraded or damaged.

Yup, same here.  Buying a used record is always a roll of the dice.

Do what elliottbnewcombjr says.  He's really got the situation pegged.

i take a small powerful flashlight with me and only buy near mint records, i dont mind a filthy record as i am going to clean it anyways but i have very little tolerance for scratches.  but the good news is that they are out there, not all records were misused and plenty of them were barely played you just have to keep looking.

It’s not just inspecting/cleaning them, it is how you get em also.

Sometimes I’m careful, sometimes not so much.

I’m a listener, not a collector, and never spend a lot individually for used. Buying on Discogs, unseen, I sort by condition, buy new, mint, nearly mint only. 1 came dirty, annoying, but luckily cleaned up nicely.

Find a title of interest, Then, which pressing? I pay some attention, make a guess/choice. Before add to cart I do a general search for that specific title, sometimes find a new one for less than a used one. Again, what pressing?

Concert, selling LP’s in the lobby? Search on your phone, less, now, wait, gotta make a decision. I have patience to wait.

picked up 4 used lps yesterday, $17. At that price, if one bad, no biggie.

Just walking to the car, Donna sees something ’cute’ in a window, small shop, store owner told her he was closed, but come on in while he shuts down.

Turns out he has some new and used LPs in the back, Donna comes out and tells me. I don’t have the time/patience to really go over them, especially wearing a mask, and Donna waiting for me, so I only pulled out of sleeve halfway, see anything, forget it. Look encouraging, this situation, ok, I didn’t even look at the other side,

Look good, unknown singer, nice list of instruments, I ask Donna to look the artist up on her phone, next thing I am listening to her voice, hmmmm

Point is, you win most of the time, you lose some. I lump them all in my brain, some mistakes, but all together, over many years, I’ve gotten a lot of music I would never have bought new, and a large majority clean up quite enjoyably.

I’ll let you know if all good after I clean them.