How to tell if the record is worn out?

I am afraid that these practices have spread to Ebay. I have seen several records that show up looking good. They have been cleaned and possibly shined up. They play dead...heavy surface noise and terrible distortion. These records often have long, detailed and flowery descriptions. I do not like buying cleaned records!

Have you tried 'recleaning' them? Let the cleaing solution soak for a few minutes before rinsing...

Dewald Visser

Well the Armorall effect or Super shinny, and more so than any new album is not a good way to say it has been tampered with either, I clean using a VPI and record research fluid and its like a Black diamond when I get finished and the sound is Perfect without a crackle or pop!! So Reality is that super good clean 50 or 100 dollar album could in fact be treated with the best cleaning possible and play with the highest resolution you have heard..It does happen, and there are very impressive looks to a properly cleaned album is all I am saying if you have not had experience using one of the hi end cleaning machines.

Dewald,
I always clean/reclean, even new albums. I have a lovely Loricraft, so it is quiet and easy. I use any of 4 or 5 chemicals depending on dirt or mold issues. The last 2 passes are always RRL Deep wash followed by the Vinyl wash.
After all that, you can still have a crappy pressing. I was heart broken yesterday with a 1st pressing UK St. Pepper mono. It has to go back to England. The is seller is a nice guy and all, but I after 2 songs I knew it was shot.

I clean with the RRL fluids as well on a KAB EV1 and have also had records cleaned on a Monks so I know what a clean record looks like. As I said above, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. When a 20-50 year old record has an unusually high, extremely shiny "gloss" to it (far beyond what a record cleaned on a good machine using RRL does) and shows virtually no imperfections (I'm not averse to imperfections-many of them are not audible), it is indicative of some kind of cosmetic treatment that may or may not effect sound quality. And based on my experience, I'd say that "cosmetic treatment" may do one of two things: 1) hide extensive groove damage that might be visible had the record not been treated or 2) literally cement every bit of crap into the grooves rendering the record (at least from my perspective) unplayable. I've bought a record (fortunately only one and for $10) like this at a show that looked flawless and even after 3-4 cleanings using the RRL showed absolutely no improvement with respect to outrageously high surface noise (not actual groove damage). That record had definitely been treated and it wasn't with something that did anything good for it.