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.
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.