I’m probably more tolerant than most audiophiles. But if there are any grooves that either skip or repeat, if there are grooves that display significant distortion (from being chewed up by a previous owner), or if the noise floor becomes overpowering for even rock music, then it gets put into the "do not play" pile. Deep scratches that yield a loud "pop" an 2 second intervals can be awful, and I judge them on a case-by-case basis. Occasionally there will be a record with a single extraordinarily loud "POP" instance - and then I try to find a baked-on piece of grit that caused it so it can be cleaned off. Of course, when a record is a bit noisy I will play it, but if I really like it I’ll try to acquire a better copy, eventually.
I visually inspect vinyl at local stores. And on DiscOgs I aim for VG+ or NM, only going down to VG if absolutely necessary. With this, it’s relatively rare to encounter a record that fails my playback criteria. It’s more likely that the recording/master/pressing just sounds "blah", and I will not want to listen to it again for that reason. But that's the value of vintage vinyl - they tend to sound better than most reissues. So I find it extremely worthwhile to buy used.
I do have one record I love with a failed end-groove (Dust - Hard Attack side A), but no other playback issues. That’s no fun, when you get to the end of a side and your expensive MC stylus is sent careening into the paper label (a water damaged label to boot)!
I visually inspect vinyl at local stores. And on DiscOgs I aim for VG+ or NM, only going down to VG if absolutely necessary. With this, it’s relatively rare to encounter a record that fails my playback criteria. It’s more likely that the recording/master/pressing just sounds "blah", and I will not want to listen to it again for that reason. But that's the value of vintage vinyl - they tend to sound better than most reissues. So I find it extremely worthwhile to buy used.
I do have one record I love with a failed end-groove (Dust - Hard Attack side A), but no other playback issues. That’s no fun, when you get to the end of a side and your expensive MC stylus is sent careening into the paper label (a water damaged label to boot)!