No substitute for looking at a gun, in person. I can count the dealers I take their word for on things, on three fingers. Paying freight both ways, just to get your money back for their error(s) gets old and expensive real fast. As I told my son when he was house hunting, the photos they do not take tell you as much as what they do take. By that I mean if there is a flaw they wont show it in a photo. So learn what are the normal photo views and when you come across a listing missing them either ask for them or understand if it was normal or good for the listing, that photo would be there. For example, if the kitchen is crap it will have very few if any good photos of it, but if the kitchen is great you will see seven to ten photos of it. Same thing with guns. If the lever is not right of center you will not see a good photo of it. Or a scratch or finish blemish will be just off camera. What is missing is harder to figure out than the eye candy you see.
When I was buying a lot of stock blanks I wanted six good photos, one each, of each side, top, bottom, and both ends. From those I could almost always figure out everything except density of a blank. When you get only two side views you could never figure out grain flow from front to back or side to side, and never figure out grain, like quarter saw, flat saw, or riff saw, which was very important to me. Twisty is not good in a stock blank. I have bought some exceptional stock blanks for $50.00 and some heartbreaking junk for near a grand. Those I sent back when I could. A good dealer will stand behind his wood. Same for a good dealer of guns. The good ones offer a no question return policy, the great one will pay for shipping if the mistake was their fault. Funny thing is I never ask them for the shipping but if they offer it is big to me. Just the offer is enough for me. We all miss things from time to time. And once you have a good relationship with that dealer, a simple call will get you 100% straight answers to your questions, as they respect a honest buyer just as much as you do a honest seller. Know what you are buying, ask the right questions and ask them is there anything I am missing.
