I bought a 804 HR/5 in clean shape, but it had received a blow & the prisms had moved slightly. Listed as working great & I'm sure @ 8-10' across the room they worked fine.
Both objectives weren't even finger tight, so I figured someone had already been inside poking around.
Picked up a 6x30 B&L Zephyr that cleaned up nicely and has a spot on view. I've learned much over the last few months & probably 40 or so examples later mix of new/old roof/porro/Galilean w/some being opera glass.
I learned not to bid against Frank as he has deep pockets & isn't skeered to throw it around.(HA!) Between him, Steve, the rest of the lot here & CN it's tough to snag a deal.
Some of the cheaper &/or overlooked turned out to be favorites whilst others that were more expensive were worth the price even though it might have stung a mite. Some people are honest, yet ignorant whilst others are lying through their teeth selling parts bins advertised as working swell wishing to skin you alive.
The B&L Legacy was a cheap dandy & though showed one pic was out of whack a bit. Could be from throwing it in a box big enough for a half a dozen w/no packing material save a piece of butcher paper wrapped twice around the bins. As many of the others I had to invest a little time tinkering to get the pic closer, but it's a wide view and built as a Chinese tank.
Looking through old & new glass separated at times by decades of manufacturing and/or light years of quality gives you perspective. I'm deadlocked in a dispute even as I type and the bay is dragging their feet, but for the most part it's been enjoyable. Even though I went through a stretch where only one out of seven was as described rendering a single view.
Some of the older glass is nice, not great and some are turds. The older higher magnification will have a greater chance of being out of alignment. They almost always will be described as working great. The 12x36 Nikon DCF, 22x80 Beck CBS, 25x100 Apogee, 14x70 Orion & 16x60 Pentax porro were fine. Others in the 10/14/16/20/40 range weren't.
There's plenty of lower power glass that isn't right as well. I have a 2.5X opera glass that shows double vision & several porros in the 7-8x that are parts bins if I can't repair them.
I'm saying it's pot luck on the open market. Astromart w/15 clams membership fee seems to be associated w/folks more likely to be honest about condition & knowledgeable from what I hear, yet the auction sites have a wide variety.
Good luck & happy bin hunting bois & gurlz.
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ETA: I have a couple of antiques, yet they tend to be a tad too expensive for my blood & I have to search for the lower tiers not in the best of shape sometimes. Still enjoyable in their own right.