...bought a 1997 Les Paul Standard DC .... seller was forthright in his description - it had a broken tuner, replaced with a functional but mismatched one. He said it'd been played very little and judging from the lack of fret wear or scratches and dings, I believe him. It's a beautiful guitar, cosmetically and otherwise: action, tone, feel, etc. He didn't mention that one of the volume knobs was loose, or that the pick-up switch was a little noisy, but maybe he thought, as I did, that these indescrepancies were too minor to mention. It's not anything that can't be easily fixed. I've bought 5 guitars in the last five years, all out of a catalog except for the LP, and I'd never played any of them before I bought them...so far I've been satisfied. Then again, I'm not that picky. YMMV. I'd buy off e-Bay again, the same way, if I got the urge.