Second hand vinyl surface damage.

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 tend to look for dead stock, old still sealed cut outs or records that appear to have been unplayed. And the vagaries of record manufacture that people complain about today did exist in the old days. Add warps as an issue of potential concern- something that can be rectified in most cases with the appropriate equipment but can be problematic without a good flattening system.
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.
If the question is how much noise or how many nasties I'm willing to put up w/, the answer is none. Granted, vinyl is  susceptible to such problems, but it's not impossible to find old records that play cleanly without issues. Some have more inherent surface noise than others which I will tolerate but this type of "noise" is different than what I think you are describing. E.g., Old Impulse pressings, some Bell Records, etc. 

If you see the scratch through the lead-in grooves between cuts that means you're going to hear it. If it disappears between cuts its probably inaudible.

I have 2500lps, a great many my old ones, old ones given to me by friends (old dogs buying in the 60’s, 70’s, early 80’s, until CD became affordable).

Many new I bought when CD’s drove LP prices down, primarily high end classical issues, newly discovered Jazz.

Then, CD for me for years, a few years ago started buying many used from thrift stores, those fit your thread, as well as new.

I look for zero scratches, ignore paper dust, don’t mind some/minor surface scuffs which are very rarely audible, don’t worry about finger prints. and critically look for lack of real dirt in the grooves. See a bimp in a playing area that might cause a skip, forget it.

Manually cleaning my old ones and gifts, and recent/current used purchases has been very successful once I bought a cleaning kit with a drying rack for batches of 10, and distilled rinse. Thus no rush to clean/play right away which was never successful.

You really cannot see groove wear, but they were likely played by a spherical or elliptical stylus. I am using an advanced stylus shape, getting further down into the grooves, more side wall contact, and finding, even ones I played the heck out of in the 60’s sound surprisingly good. Scratch, out it goes. Replace a true favorite with new or near mint LP, yes, or ask for it for a gift.

Of course we like nice covers, however I personally don’t care about the cover condition IF I know I want it, IF the price is good. I’ve always thrown the shrink wrap away day 1,

If I find audible scratches, out to the trash

skips: I now keep a supply of small alcohol wipes near my TT. If I have a skip, I watch it, watch paper label go around so I know essentially where it is, stop, more light, most often see a tiny speck in the groove: clean with alcohol wipe/hand pressure, try, mostly skip is gone, or out it goes. sometimes, not often, I cannot see anything, but try the wipe, gone

......................................

I sell on eBay, unconditional full refund, no one has requested a refund.

my typical LP listing (you can see my audio system, 'new' 2 arm vintage TT, cleaning method here)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133527873619

btw, I sold over 150 Reel to Reel tapes on eBay, 1 buyer asked for refund, 1 box destroyed purposely it seemed by PO (tape ok), I gave them full refunds and let them keep the tapes.

btw, multi disc collections are often played only once, or not even past side one of disc one, as they were gifts to someone who ’wasn’t into it’. I just scored Earl Fatha Hines, 5 lps, never played, $15, near virgin box.

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.