I'm lucky living in Southern California, where there's a huge range of used audio within an hour's drive. While I hate gambling in general and never go to Vegas, I really enjoy the process of taking a risk and meeting a seller at their house for a local transaction and pick-up of a piece of gear. I've bought Quad ESL's, Klipsch Cornwalls, Altec 604's, Snell Model E's, and Monitor Audio MA-3's this way. The Snell's, from a used gear store, at a low price, were the only ones that gave me trouble. But I could see the tweeters' coatings were cracked, and I had fun cleaning the old coating off and replacing it with shellac, which restored the highs nicely. Classic designs have good resale here, so to me it's a bigger gamble spending a ton of money on new speakers whose sound will keep changing for weeks as they break in, and whose resale goes through the floor as soon as they're in your door. Spending time with speakers at home, experimenting with amps and placement is the only way learn how to get what I like from my gear. In-person visual inspection, hearing a test with music you know, chatting up the seller and doing your research is fun and rewarding- whether you buy locally new or used. Buying new speakers shipped from a remote seller is the last thing I'd do.
What to ask when buying used speakers?
I have purchased used components in the past and I can do this with confidence their functionality is well defined and easily verified. I am starting to look for a new set of speakers and will consider buying used. Assuming that I am doing this over distance and will not be able to inspect or demo the speakers in person, what are some good questions to ask to determine the real state of the speakers? Any red flags? Can used speakers have incurred subtle damages or wear that will affect the sound? For the sake of discussion, let's assume that they are less than five years old so we can rule out decaying surrounds and old caps, etc.