What condition do you consider acceptable when buying disk

If ordering off the internet, mint/like new is the lowest I'm willing to go simply because of how many fucking times I haven't been able to get a refund. If I'm buying a used game at a brick and mortar store or from someone selling off their games, and it's a little dinged up, I will ask to test it on proper hardware with them present. If they say no, or it's past light damage to the disk, I will not buy.

if it looks like it's been through a wood chipper and I'm paying more than $8, I might not even buy it

if it's around $1 or less, who cares?

if there's a massive visible scratch, no-go

>>3937831
Exactly this.

If online, light better reflect off it perfectly.

I have far more badly scratched discs that read perfectly so that wouldn't really bother me. I'd be more concerned with the state of the label side tbqh.

That said, Playstation laser assemblies are so shitty even brand new ones often have trouble reading brand new / mint discs so I might raise my standards a little for that particular platform.

>>3938121
It's not just the laser, due to the way the PS1 disc is formatted they have less error correction than most other CDs since they use the mode 2 format for whatever reason.

>>3937815
You could just get the disc professionally resurfaced somewhere.
http://www.azuradisc.com/azuradisc/mail-in-disc-repair.html

>>3938602
Does toothpaste and water with a napkin work or is that just a meme?

>>3937815
it just werks

>>3937853
So if it looks like it's been through a woodchipper and its $8, it's a sale?

>>3938770
I had an incredibly fucked up copy of CTR resurrect itself from unplayable with the toothpaste method, albeit incredibly glitched and prone to freezing. YMMV depending on the damage

>>3938803
On the topic of not working PS1 games, I've gotten a non working game working by using the swap trick. It seems only the boot portion was damaged preventing it from running, so using the swap trick with a working game fixed it.

can double-layer dvds actually be polished?

Heres a cringe story for you guys

>2005, about 14 years old. on vacation with family
>pass by an eb games. go inside a see a Spyro 1 in case for like $10, always wanted it. buy the game but cant play it until it get home
>get home a few days later, pop it in and it skips and wont play, look at the bottom, theres a slightly deep scratch near the center
>get some toothpaste and do all sorts of dumb teenager remedies to it
>push too hard and break the CD in half. FUCK
>get some krazy glue, glue it back together, and go to the local EB games the next day
>"sir did you break this?"
>"n-no i didnt do anything to it"
>".........okay sir well here's your refund"

i was an idiot then.

If it works it's fine. Surface scratches don't matter.

>>3938802
if it's worth double than that or if I really want it, sure

>>3938913

The boot screen is not an indicator of "works fine" you need to do a full ISO rip of the data channel and then extract the audio tracks and analyze for damaged bits. Pretty stupid waste of time to save a few bucks rather than buying mint condition.

>>3937815
squeeky clean; anyway if its a cd why not just make your own copy?